Feeling God’s Presence

            I read of a preacher who once ministered to young parents who had a baby isolated in the quarantine section of a children’s hospital in Los Angeles. The infant was dangerously susceptible to infection. To visit the parents, he had to don protective clothing and walk down a long hall constructed of plastic tarps.            

            The baby, a girl, had been placed in a small hospital bed, also surrounded by plastic, and cut off from the outside world. Her parents had not held or touched her in months.

            The preacher wondered how in the world baby could feel the love of her parents. The mother showed him. She inserted her hands and arms into a specially constructed plastic mold, which formed sleeves and hands. The mother then picked up the baby and cradled the child in her two arms. She leaned over, placed her lips on the plastic, and gave the tiny one a kiss. After the kiss, she rocked the baby back and forth. That mother’s flesh never touched the baby; still, the infant felt her presence and her love.

            It occurred to the minister that our relationship with God is like that. We can't see God, we can't touch God, but we can feel his presence and his love, just as that baby felt the presence and love of her mother.

Scattered Effort

Scattered Effort

            Here is something I read in the publication, BITS AND PIECES, twenty years ago; Henry Ford is the source of this quote, and it challenges those of us who have embraced the multi-tasking culture—of whom, I am chief.  

“A weakness of all human beings is trying to do too many things at once. That scatters effort and destroys direction. It makes for haste, and haste makes waste. So we do things all the wrong ways possible before we come to the right one. Then we think it is the best way because it works, and it was the only way left that we could see.”

            The psalmist issued a interesting related quote three thousand years ago:

 “Be still, and know that I am God…”

Obstacles

            So often, I see, in Scripture a God, who uses obstacles to make and mold us into the image of His Son. In thinking about this, I am reminded of an old parable:

The Obstacle in Our Path

 In ancient times, a king had a boulder placed on a roadway.  Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock.            

Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the big stone out of the way.

Then, a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. On approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road.  After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded.

As the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse laying in the road where the boulder had been.  The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king, indicating that the gold was for the person, who removed the boulder from the roadway.

The peasant learned what many others never understand. Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one's condition.

            For the Christian, every obstacle does present an opportunity for improvement of one’s condition. Not for monetary enrichment, but for spiritual enrichment, because the adversity can serve as a tool of God to become more transformed into the image of Jesus.

The Deaf Girl

Philip Yancey writes of a girl raised by deaf parents. When she desired to shut them out of her life, she would simply close her eyes.

Of course, this action would make her parents feel angry; they could only communicate with her through signing.

Yancey concluded, “As I think of that young girl, her eyelids sealed tight against the frantic hand motions of her parents, I get a picture of how God must feel when I shut him out.”

Ouch! How many times do I shut God out?