Chuck Tabor
Contributing columnist
Let’s play a word association game this week. I will mention a word, and you say the first thing that comes into your mind. For example, if I say “black”, statistics demonstrate that you most likely say “white.” If I were to call out “dog”, you would, if the stats are correct, say “cat.”
OK, are you ready? Here goes. The word I want to say is… ”God!”
What did you say? Some may have said things like “Satan” or “The Devil” in the spirit of saying the opposite of what the word really means. For others, the word you associate with God is one of existence: “is” or “is not.” For still others the word you associate with God is a word of character, such as “love,” “mercy” or “holy.”
What comes into your mind when you think about God? That is a very important question for each of us to answer. In the words of A.W. Tozer: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” So what do you think about when you think about God?
I would like to take a journey with you. Our destination is to come to the point where we understand and know God better. Similar to my past hiking trips in the Smoky Mountains, enjoying this journey itself is just as important as reaching the destination. The journey is the destination. On our hikes through the mountains, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the whole trip is enjoying the scenery and mountain vistas along the way. So, too, as we journey down this road toward God, the most significant parts of this whole trek will be the glimpses of God that we gain along the way.
The kids are all lined up in the cafeteria of a religious school for lunch. At the head of the line was a large pile of apples. Their teacher made a note: “Take only one, God is watching.” At the other end of the line was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. One of the first students to go through the line had written another note: “Take all you want, God is watching the apples.”
Now, obviously God is big enough that if He is watching the apples at one end of the cafeteria line He is also able to watch the chocolate chip cookies at the other end, isn’t he? If the cafeteria police are able to do such things (… and they are), certainly God can. Why? Because God knows everything. He is omniscient. That means literally He is all-knowing.
Did you get it? God knows everything! He knows what happened to me yesterday or last week. He also knows what will happen today and tomorrow in Washington, in Tel Aviv, or even right where you are, wherever that may be. He knows what I will do, where I will go, the people I will talk to, the food that I will eat, the exercise I will engage in, the work I will do, and the list goes on and on.
That concept is almost too big for me to wrap my mind around. But then I look at my cell phone and it helps me to understand. Syndicated columnist Thomas Friedman devoted a recent column to the idea that technology has changed our lives significantly. Anyone we encounter could have a cell phone with a camera that could record our actions. If we’re rude or misbehave, we could end up on the offended party’s blog or some tell-all website for the whole world to see. “We’re all public figures now,” concludes Friedman. In this world of new and potentially revealing technology, how we live our lives and conduct our businesses has become far more significant than what we do. “We do not live in glass houses; we live on glass microscope slides… visible and exposed to all,” wrote Friedman.
What a concept —take great care about how you live your life, because someone is watching. This is news to columnists and authors, but it’s hardly a revelation to those who believe in a sovereign, all-seeing, all-knowing God.
The psalmist David knew it well: “ O Lord, … You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.” (Psalm 139:1-4)
Knowing that God knows everything is a wonderful scenario for daily living. Nothing you or I encounter today will catch Him off guard, no matter how we respond to it. In other words, because He is God, He knows everything about you and me – — and loves us anyway.
With that in mind, I have one question for you: How many chocolate chip cookies will you take?
God bless…
Chuck Tabor is a religion columnist for The Times-Gazette and a former Hillsboro area pastor who now resides in Florida. He can be reached at [email protected].
