in the details we take delight
Last night we let the boys watch "Microcosmos" (streaming Netflix), a nature documentary on the world of bugs. It was absolutely amazing to see what was going on up close and personal in the bug world. To watch a dragonfly painstakingly emerge from its egg, marvel at how quickly a spider spins its web around the hapless grasshopper, laugh at funny antler-shaped protrusions from the head of a moth... it was a really neat way to share Creation with the boys, and learn a lot ourselves. I have more respect for the dung beetle, a true hardworker, than I ever would have thought possible!
Later there was a tiny black bug crawling on my tub as I brushed my teeth, and as usual I reached out my hand to smush it... but this time I couldn't do it. I wondered what I couldn't see-- what magic was hidden from my eyes without the benefit of a microscope... and I couldn't wreck the beauty that was probably there.
Similarly, when we know the details of someone else's life, we are much more able to identify and commiserate. We fear that revealing our weaknesses to others will cause them to judge and pull away from us but so often it is the opposite... it is only when we truly know someone that we can love them fully. Like a mother who studies her baby's features, memorizes the exact location of every wrinkle and freckle, traces the curve of a cowlick... in the details we take delight.
Amazingly enough, the same is true with God. So many feel the need to guiltily run and hide but we forget that He made us and knows our details... and doesn't love us despite our details but because of our details.
and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
...23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Later there was a tiny black bug crawling on my tub as I brushed my teeth, and as usual I reached out my hand to smush it... but this time I couldn't do it. I wondered what I couldn't see-- what magic was hidden from my eyes without the benefit of a microscope... and I couldn't wreck the beauty that was probably there.
Similarly, when we know the details of someone else's life, we are much more able to identify and commiserate. We fear that revealing our weaknesses to others will cause them to judge and pull away from us but so often it is the opposite... it is only when we truly know someone that we can love them fully. Like a mother who studies her baby's features, memorizes the exact location of every wrinkle and freckle, traces the curve of a cowlick... in the details we take delight.
Amazingly enough, the same is true with God. So many feel the need to guiltily run and hide but we forget that He made us and knows our details... and doesn't love us despite our details but because of our details.
Psalm 139
1 You have searched me, LORD,and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
...23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
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