The Comfort of Being Known

Thursday, September 1, 2022

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.  You know when I sit down or stand up.  You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.  You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.  You know everything I do.  You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.  You go before me and follow me.  You place your hand of blessing on my head.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.  You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.  They cannot be numbered!  I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!  And when I wake up, you are still with me! 

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

Our little Shih-Tzu dog, Wellie, is always under-foot; he’s not intentionally trying to have us trip on him…he just wants to be near us.  When I sit at my desk to study or write, there’s never a question where he’ll be.

The veternarian might call this little guy’s attachment “separation anxiety” but the fact is, we are mostly all he’s got.  There aren’t any other furry critters in the house, and he doesn’t get around too well because his back legs don’t work.  So Wellie talks to us (a lot)!  And he will not be quieted; he wants response (especially around dinner time)!  We’re thinking there must be some comfort for him to be near his human pets. 

You and I are not a whole lot different from Wellie.  We are really limited, physically, mentally, and relationally-speaking.  We mess up a good bit, some of it because we just can’t help ourselves, and some because we’re mean.  (Wellie is rarely mean, but if we get home after his meal time, he’s as cranky as they get!) 

Like Wellie, we too have an owner.  God is our creator and we are so dependent on Him for everything…even the next breath you take is in His hands.  The Psalmist marvels at the closeness of God, and the knowledge He has of the complexity with which we are put together; He made us, and it was with the simplest of His thoughts, but light-years ahead of our deepest comprehension.  And the comfort it brings us to know He is there, even watching over us as we sleep – being there when we awaken – and knowing our needs before we can even think of them….it is all so very above imagination!

For You Today

Let this thought govern your day, and your dreams tonight…

God introduced Himself to Moses with the name of His being:  I AM…that I AM.  And with that he described what drives our faith, and helps us understand the meaning of our very existance…along with being able to rest in His care:

The I AM loved us before, now, and for all eternity.  Try that on for comfort!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

The Doily and Subway Sermon

[1] Images:   Title Image today is a portrait in oils of our Wellie, by Jennifer Brownworth Klim                                                              Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©