This is hands-down my favorite passage in the bible. It is the passage I always return to when I’m feeling alone, or when I need to be reminded that the Lord has designed me for an intimate relationship with him. At times, this verse can be scary — perhaps I don’t want Him to know everything about me. But, at the same time, I can’t help but feel a huge sense of relief knowing that nothing is hidden from Him. Nothing. And yet in spite of all the junk in my life, he loves me more than any body else will ever be able to.
God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too–you’re reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful–I can’t take it all in!
Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there. If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, You’d find me in a minute–you’re already there waiting! Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.
Oh yea, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God–you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration – what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; you know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you. The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.
Your thoughts–how rare, how beautiful! God, I’ll never comprehend them! I couldn’t even begin to count them–any more than I could count the sand of the sea. Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you! And please, God, do away with wickedness for good! And you murderers–out of here!–all the men and women who belittle you, God, infatuated with cheap god-imitations. See how I hate those who hate you, God, see how I loathe all this godless arrogance; I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred. Your enemies are my enemies!
Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me. Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; see for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong–then guide me on the road to eternal life” (From The Message by Eugene Peterson).
God wants us, despite our baggage. He knows us more intimately than even our mothers do, who carried us until birth. How crazy is it that he knew us even before that? That he knows the number of hairs on our head, and each freckle on our face. He knows our wants, our needs, our desires, and he knows what’s best for us. He’s the kind of father that even the best of fathers couldn’t come close to measuring up against. Any he’s all ours…that is, if we drop the wordly things we’re serving, take up our cross, and follow him.
We all serve something, whether it’s God or something of this world. It might be our money, our friends, our televisions, our bodies, our work, or perhaps even our own comforts and conveniences. Whatever we treasure, wherever our heart lies, whatever we spend our money and time on, that’s what we’re worshiping.
What are you worshiping right now?
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