What Makes God Different Than Us??

This morning at church, the sermon was based on a passage from the 139th chapter of Psalms. It's always been one of my favorite chapters, and it's neat when you hear the same material you've heard for years, and it yields a brand new lesson!

"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar...you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord."

The first thing that came to mind when I read this passage was, "God can read our minds." Huh.

I find that revelation to be very important, because...I don't know about you, but I cannot read minds. I try, of course. Don't you? I try to figure out what other people are thinking...especially when I'm in the midst of a situation where things might be uncomfortable, and it's easier to try to read someone's mind than it is to simply ask, "What are you thinking??"

"You hem me in-behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain."

The picture that came to mind when I read this was of an adult with their arms wrapped around a small child. Can you visualize what I mean? Perhaps protectively...perhaps playfully...you wrap your big adult arms around a beloved child and say, "I've got you! You can't get away!"

Where our relationship with God is concerned, I think this picture is important...it's too much, like the psalmist says...for us to even comprehend. After all, we never get to physically see the arms of God. And yet, He's got us. We are hemmed in by his protective arms. Where can we go from his Spirit? Where can we flee from his presence? If we ascend to the highest heights, or descend to the depths of hell, we can't get away from the protective and loving presence of God.

"If I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you."

And that's the last thing I noticed this morning about how God is different than we are. There is no darkness with God. In our darkest of moments, the dark is not dark to God, because even the darkest night shines like bright mid-day to him.

It reminds me of what's it's like to take off in a plane on a cloudy and rainy day...after just a few moments through dark and cloudy skies...suddenly you burst into the sunlight, and the clouds are far below. God is not limited by our clouds, or by the times when we feel all is dark and heavy.

He knows our thoughts, good, bad and indifferent...he's hemmed us in, behind and before...and he lives far above the limits of our earthly difficulties and pain.

He's got you...and he's got me. And that makes all the difference.