Attentive Like No Other.

I was visiting a member this week and she shared with me a thought about going to heaven: “I hope there is a stray chair up there for me.” She said this with a wistful yearning, and yet there was an air of confidence in her voice. As a pastor I wanted to make a stalwart comment to support her trust but also help her take that mousy thought (a spare chair) captive and make it more fully align with Christ’s own teachings (2 Corinthians 10:5). This provided a great opening through which to encourage her faith and help her see the full picture of God’s hold on her life and His extreme love for her.

I started first with the passage from John 14 which says, “in my Father’s house are many rooms . . . and I go there to prepare a place for you.” Not only will there be a chair, but there will be a place that is specifically being prepared for her by Jesus Himself. Jesus, the grand designer of Life and all the natural characters that surround us daily - pine cones sequenced according to the Fibonacci arrangement of mathematics, art and science; delicate leaves that follow God’s design for harvesting the power of the sun, turning it into food for the plant, caterpillars that will be soon transformed into amazing butterflies - this same Jesus has committed His time and energy into creating a living space for our eternal bodies to be eternally at rest and in residence with Him. Phenomenal!

Why would God care enough to prepare a place for her, for us? He cares because He crafted each one of us with specific detail. “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Psalm 139:13-14).

But let me show you one more detail that I have overlooked until this very week: God watches you so closely that He is anticipating what the next words are which will cascade from your lips. “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether” (Psalm 139:4). Who else is so close to us and pays such close attention to us that our very next words are anticipated and known? Only God can care that much.

So let’s look again at the words of Psalm 139 and see the caring, passionate gaze of our Loving Lord and Savior. He’s anticipating your next move, He’s ready for your awakening tomorrow and your time to sit down for a meal. He is attentive like no other.

“O LORD, you have searched me and known me!

2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

3 You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

4 Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

5 You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is high; I cannot attain it.

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

9 If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

10 even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

11 If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,’

12 even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.

13 For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

I awake, and I am still with you.

19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!

O men of blood, depart from me!

20 They speak against you with malicious intent;

your enemies take your name in vain.

21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?

And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

22 I hate them with complete hatred;

I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139)!