Be a Lamplighter!

I was so convicted and encouraged by a wonderful woman's conference I attended this past weekend. At the end of the session, we were challenged with the question: "Will you live a life that counts? A life that counts would long to make much of the glory of God." Our purpose every day should be to bring glory to God.

Our world, however, often seeks to attribute anything good to anyone or anything else other than the Lord. And how often our (translate, "my") prideful tendency is to want the glory for ourselves. Does anyone notice all that laundry I've folded or the hard work I put into that ridiculously difficult "30 minute meal" (I suppose superman could cook it in 30 minutes--but he would still have a 3 hour clean up). How quickly I can slip into the desire to be thanked and praised for my puny efforts, and suddenly God is left entirely out of the equation. Who gave me the ability to make that meal or drive that car or accomplish that task? Who gave me energy or desire or focus? I should never tire of continually giving Him glory with a thankful heart, even for my next breath.

Needless to say, that is why this blog is named Solideogloria--my heart's desire every single day is that He would be glorified in all that I do, all that I say, and in all that I think. If that is not our ultimate purpose in everything we do, then our efforts will be futile and will result in frustration rather than fulfillment. And that is so contrary to God's purpose for us--to live joyful, purposeful, satisfied lives as we enjoy Him and walk with Him each day.

As I contemplated what it meant to live to bring God glory, I couldn't help but think of one of my very favorite little illustrations I heard years ago. (and I may have already shared it--but don't we all need to be reminded of these things? I know I do!) It's a simple (and true) description of an old lamplighter as told by Sir Harry Lauder, the famed Scottish humorist from the late 19th and early 20th century. Here are his words:

"I was sitting in the gloanin' and a man passed by the window. He was the lamplighter. He pushed his pole into the lamp and lighted it. Then he went to another and another. Now I didn't see him. But I knew where he was by the lights as they broke out down the street, until he had left a beautiful avenue of light. Ye are a lamplighter. They'll know where ye've been by the lights ye have lit."

What a beautiful description of how we should be living our lives as believers! We are all lamplighters! We should be lighting the way everywhere we go by our love, our joy, our faith. When we are living for the glory of God in all we do and say, then we are lighting lamps that will leave the warm glow of the light of Christ in every place we have been. Do others see the reflection of His glorious light trailing behind us or do they see our selfishness, hypocrisy, or pridefulness? If we are living for the glory of God, we cannot help but be lamplighters!

Today, be a lamplighter--purposefully seek to live for the glory of God. Jesus revealed that He is "the Light of the World. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12) And Psalm 27:1 declares "The Lord is my Light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?" He is our Light, so we need never walk in the darkness of fear and despair. As we live for His glory, might we be lamplighters reflecting His glorious Light in every dark corner of our world. To our gracious, saving, powerful Light of the Word, be all the glory!

My Thank You List Today

Just a few things for which I'm thankful today:

Car seat warmers (what a genius invention)

The outline of the bare trees against an early morning or early evening sky

The truth that this is not our home--and if this earth can be so breathtaking, can you imagine what heaven will be like? Wow

Warm days in the middle of January--a reminder that the sun is still there, winter is bracing and beautiful (even if sometimes a bit discouraging), but spring will be here eventually

Smiles... and laughter--what a gift from God!

The comfort and joy of dear friends--may we never take the blessing of friendship for granted!

Date nights--whew, always good to get a break from the grind and the routine, but...

The routine--we forget how good it is to have some predictability in our lives until we experience those inevitable disruptive moments. Suddenly all the little things we took for granted, or perhaps even felt a bit burdensome, become quite precious to us. Maybe we need to be thankful for those seemingly inconsequential routine blessings/burdens now and not when we are deprived of them. (One very small, silly example--remember how thankful you are to be able to do the laundry or drive your child to school after you have just recovered from a virulent stomach bug?!)

My husband's sense of humor (after all, he puts up with me) and wisdom (which I don't always perceive as wisdom but really is)

The dear women in my Bible study and all they have taught me (and that they put up with me, too! A small miracle)

Teachers--God bless 'em!

Chocolate--because absolutely no list would be complete without it! If you don't like chocolate, my sympathies, and, frankly, I'm mystified.

The wisdom and supernatural power of God's Word and the way the Bible is endlessly applicable, encouraging, convicting.

My children--simply grace upon grace. As a mom, I am utterly inadequate, undeserving, and grateful beyond all reason.

Slipping into a steaming hot bath late at night when you are really tired. Bliss

The Pioneer Woman's blog--what can I say, she is just so real and funny, and hope springs eternal that I will one day become a great cook (HA!)

The sound of my children's voices on the phone--especially when they call me just to talk or for advice and not just because I called them (it does happen every century or so)

The sound of my children's voices on the phone even if it is just because I called them

The gift of my brothers and sisters and all our shared memories and the fun we all have when we are together (which is not nearly often enough)

Writing and reading--and having a moderately decent set of eyes and a slightly decent (even if below average) brain with which to see and think

Grace

Grace

Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me. O Lord, help me never ever to get over the wonder of Your salvation to such a one as me. To paraphrase Tim Keller, I am far far worse than I could ever imagine but I am far far more loved and cherished by my Savior than I could ever dare hope or dream. We all are. Don't take it for granted. We are all the thieves hanging on either side of the Lord Jesus on the cross. The only question is, which thief are you? Are you the thief who died in his pride and sin or are you the thief who asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom? We are all thieves--but I am a thief redeemed by the blood of Christ

and saved by His grace. There are only two choices: which one are you?

To the Savior and the Redeemer, the Giver of all good gifts, be all the glory.

Lesson from our Dog--Part III

As I write this, sweet old Moses sits at my feet--snoozing contentedly as usual. Yet another lesson from my old lab: he just wants to be sitting as near to us as possible whenever possible. He's content as long as someone is home, and he can rest at that person's side. I have often asked myself the question, does that reflect my attitude towards God? Am I determined to rest at His feet? How important is it to me just to be and go wherever He is or is going? Or do I tend to want to pursue my own agenda and get busy with my own plans and ways?

Who cannot be challenged by the example of Mary and Martha? If ever there was a Mary in our household, it is Moses! Jesus comes to their house and Martha welcomes Him. Martha is busy busy busy: cleaning, preparing, serving, making sure everybody has enough food and drink, that the table is just right and the pillows upon which the Master reclines are comfortable. Thank goodness for Mary--otherwise they would have been eating Easy Mac and pushing the dust bunnies and crumbs out of the way in order to find a place to sit! Frankly, I think we are too hard on good old Martha.

Meanwhile, Mary "sat at the Lord's feet and listened to His teaching." (Luke 10:39) "But," quite understandably, if you ask me, "Martha was distracted with much serving," (Lk 10:40) and she goes up and complains to the Lord about her lazy sister. Boy, can't you see her, fussing and fuming and pointing out that one person is doing all the work and the other person is doing squat--so, she essentially orders the Lord, "You need to set her good and straight--and don't mince any words! I need some help here!"

Well, imagine her surprise when Jesus' rebuke is aimed not for her unhelpful, lazy sister but for Martha herself! "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." (Lk 10:41-42) Don't you kind of want Jesus to first commend Martha and tell her what an outstanding job she is doing, and then maybe encourage her to spend time at His feet? Or maybe He could at least acknowledge all her hard work and her considerable skills involving home and hearth, and what a blessing this is to others? Or perhaps at least gently nudge Mary and point out what an unselfish servant her sister is?

Nope. None of that. Jesus loves Martha too much to allow her to remain locked in her self absorption and pride. He knows that true contentment, true joy, true peace come not from producing the perfect home or being the perfect hostess or completing all the tasks on her to do list. And true joy and peace certainly never ever come from comparing ourselves and our accomplishments to others. Boy, every time we go down that road, it always results either in pride or discouragement. Or as Jesus described Martha, we become "anxious and troubled" in our relentless pursuits--clearly not the path to the abundant life Jesus longs to give us.

No, the Lord Jesus loves us too much to allow us to wallow in such feelings and in such anxiety-producing preoccupations. Rather, we are first and foremost to seek Him. Worship Him. Know and love and listen to Him. So what if the Master eats Easy Mac--I think He wants a devoted heart far more than a distracted "hostess with the mostest." All those "many things" Martha (and we) focus upon may be wonderful and even important, but they are not the "one thing" that is "necessary."

We need to do those things. I do need to cook dinner for my family and run errands and love and encourage my husband and children. I do need to do the work God has called me to do--but if I'm engaged in endless, frenetic striving and not centered on Christ, then it's all for in vain. And if I seek to love and serve others but do it with a half-hidden attitude of resentment or frustration or score-keeping, well, then it's all for nought, and I will find myself burned out and discouraged... not to mention extremely unpleasant for others to be around.

I have shared it a number of times before, but I've always loved the proverb, "Reverence for God adds hours to each day." Put Him to the test! Seek Him like Mary and then trust that He will enable you to accomplish all He has called you to do as well. Have a Mary heart even as you live in a Martha world of things that need to be done--but in His time and in His way and with His heart.

Will we choose to put the Lord first? Choose to sit at His feet and seek His face and His will and His ways? Will we choose to be a bit more like Mary--and Moses--setting aside all else in order to be with and enjoy the One we love, growing in grace and godliness? O Lord, help us to do the "one thing" that is "necessary" and trust You with the rest. To God be the glory.

A tough day... But God

This morning I woke up in a funk. I'd like to say I had lots of excuses for my crummy mood--hurt feelings, unfair treatment, bad back, cold damp weather... blah blah blah. Even as I started to enumerate the reasons, they fell absolutely flat. So minor and petty, really, so self-absorbed, so self-pitying. Forgive me Lord. Funny, isn't it, how we often tend to enjoy nursing our feelings of frustration or disappointment or sadness? What starts out as a fairly small blow to our psyche slowly transforms into the Godzilla of emotional hurts. We lose perspective. We lose joy. We lose gratitude. And we shrink into a teeny little bundle of unattractive bitterness and irritability. Sometimes it takes days to overcome our self-imposed prison of misery and self-absorption.

Well, I was headed in that direction, and I got one of those "But God..." moments. You know what I mean, don't you? Those are some of my favorite verses in all the Bible, all those "But God" treasures. Just a couple to remind us: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today." (Joseph in Gen. 50:20) Or "But God demonstrated His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom. 5:8) Or "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my potion forever." (Ps. 73:26) The Scriptures are replete with those wonderful nuggets, reminding us that things may look bad, "But God" is our Helper, Defender, Redeemer, Enabler, Sustainer and on and on.

Back to my point: God graciously intervened with a "but God" moment this morning. I sat down for my quiet time and began with a little devotional book by David Jeremiah, and it was if he had written the words just for me, just for today. God likes to do stuff like that, doesn't He? Here were the opening words: "Some days are harder than others, and perhaps this is one of them for you. Life is full of frustrations, and we can grow mighty weary with financial pressures, family problems, church misunderstandings, and workplace conflicts. It sometimes seems like we're losing our minds." O boy, David had me nailed. He went on: "But God isn't losing His! Remember that nothing revokes His faithfulness. His promises to us are irreversible, unalterable, firm and fixed. There are conditions to be met, of course, but outer circumstances must bend, in His time, to the purposes and promises of God in our lives."

O mercy, I might as well keep quoting it: "Dietrich Bonhoeffer [one of my very favorites] once said, 'God does not give us everything we need, but He does fulfill His promises... leading us along the best and straightest paths to Himself.' The Lord your God will bless you just as He has promised in His Word.

His promises are sure. His blessings are great. His grace is sufficient. His presence is near. His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations. Cheer up! It's not as bad as it seems." And then to top it all off (he had me at "Some days are harder than others"), Jeremiah quotes Corrie ten Boom: "Let God's promises shine on your problems."

So that's the whole devotion! I was so convicted of my utter failure to measure my little petty grievances against the Lord Almighty! Of my selfishness and refusal to take my troubles to my Savior and ask Him to forgive and cleanse and restore and renew me. As Nancy Leigh Demoss has said, "The fact that I feel bad isn't necessarily wrong or sinful. There may be circumstances that really did make me feel bad. What's sinful is when I let those emotions cause me to start to think things that aren't true, and I nurture those thoughts and then begin to act based on them." It's the Word of God, the Truth, that needs to sanctify our minds and emotions. And when, by an act of the will, even when we really don't feel like it, we turn to God and His Truth, rather than continuing to indulge in our pity-party, then He will be faithful to change us and encourage us and teach us and, praise God, forgive us and renew us.

Maybe this doesn't apply to anybody else in the world, but if you are having a tough day, be encouraged in God's presence, His promises, His power, His peace. I pray you will have a "but God" moment and when you do, give Him your thanks and give Him the glory. To our Almighty Lord who delights in declaring "But God" be all the glory.

A Lesson from my Dog, Part II

If I were a person of at least average intelligence, I would be able to download a photograph I just took of our dog, Moses, with a look of intense, focused attentiveness on his face. Let me describe the scene: two of our boys are eating scrambled eggs for breakfast (one of the few things I can cook really well). Eggs--of any form whatsoever--happen to be Moses' favorite food. Now mind you, this is not saying much since he will eat virtually any food under the sun except, we have learned, raw garlic still in the bulb covered with that annoying skin. I guess he is concerned about his breath--I told you he is a wonderful, thoughtful dog. At any rate, whenever anyone in the house is eating anything, Moses rushes to the scene of the action, prepared like a canine boy scout, for any and all action. If even the tiniest morsel happens to drop to the floor, he is on it in a microsecond. It sure has helped with our sweeping the kitchen floor. But, boy, when I break out the eggs, Moses is especially excited and attentive.

Back to the photograph: the boys are eating eggs at the counter, and Moses stares at them with laser-like focus, ears pointed straight up, head raised and alert, eyes zeroed in on every movement of their forks. If you knew Moses, you would be especially impressed, because the other 99% of his day is spent lounging... or resting... well, actually sleeping, often with a thunderous snore. But bring out the food--especially the eggs-- and he is so totally on it.

As I snapped his picture, though, I couldn't help asking myself, is that my attitude with the Lord and His Word? Do I approach the Lord and time spent in His supernatural spiritual food--the Bible--with the same focus and attentiveness, desperate and excited to glean whatever He has to say to me that day?

So many verses speak of the beauty and infinite value of God's Word. Ps.119:105 tells us "Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to for path." Hebrews 4:12 declares: "For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

One of my favorites on this topic, Jeremiah 15:16 tells us that "Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by Your name, O Lord, God of hosts." Does that reflect my attitude towards God's Word? Daily reading and eating it--attentive, focused, joyful, expectant? God wants to speak to us today. He has words of love, comfort, conviction, guidance, wisdom, hope, warning, and strength... just for you, just for me, just what He wants us to hear and understand for today. Are we too busy? too preoccupied? too overwhelmed? too prideful?

Really?! The One who knows every hair on our head as well as our secret thoughts and our deepest insecurities and fears and our greatest needs--we are too busy or preoccupied for His supernatural words of help and enablement? How convicted I am that at times this reflects my essentially indifferent, foolish attitude towards His Word. I can sometimes read the Bible with a lackadaisical approach or perhaps with the air of "let's get this checked off my to do list." How terribly costly is such indifference! How much I miss when I fail to come before the throne with attentive wonder and eager expectancy that the Lord of the universe is speaking to me, right at that moment in time. Pretty incredible, when you consider it--frail, selfish, petulant, prideful little dust people have the infinite, omnipotent Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer speaking directly to each one of them.

Diedrich Bonhoeffer, the brilliant German theologian killed in a nazi concentration camp for conspiring against Hitler during World War II, wrote these words about God speaking through the Bible:

"First of all I will confess quite simply- I believe that the Bible alone is the answer to all our questions, and that we need only to ask repeatedly and a little humbly, in order to receive this answer. One cannot simply read the Bible, like other books. One must be prepared really to enquire of it. Only thus will it reveal itself. Only if we expect from it the ultimate answer, shall we receive it. This is because in the Bible God speaks to us. And one cannot simply think about God in one’s own strength, one has to enquire of him. Only if we seek him, will he answer us. Of course it is possible to read the Bible like any other book, that is to say from the point of view of textual criticism, etc.; there is nothing to be said against that. Only that is not the method which will reveal to us the heart of the Bible, but only the surface, just as we do not grasp the words of someone we love by taking them to bits, but by simply receiving them, so that for days they go on lingering in or minds, simply because they are the words of a person we love, and just as these words reveal more and more of the person who said them as we go on, like Mary, “pondering them in our heart,” so it will be with the words of the Bible. Only if we will venture to enter into the words of the Bible, as though in them this God were speaking to us who loves us and does not will to leave us alone with our questions, only then shall we learn to rejoice in the Bible…

If it is I who determine where God is to be found, then I shall always find a God who corresponds to me in some way, who is obliging, who is connected with my own nature. But if God determines where he is to be found, then it will be in a place which is not immediately pleasing to my nature and which will not be congenial to me. This place is the cross of Christ. And whoever would find him must go to the foot of the cross, as the Sermon on the Mount commands. This is not according to our nature at all; it is entirely contrary to it. But this is the message of the Bible, not only the New but also in the Old Testament….

And, I would like to tell you now quite personally: since I have learnt to read the Bible in this way- and this has not been so very long- it becomes every day more wonderful to me. I read it in the morning and the evening, often during the day as well, and every day I consider a text which I have chosen for the whole week, and try to sink deeply into it, so as to really hear what it is saying. I know that without this I could not live properly any longer."

That's a long quote, but such profound words. God longs to speak to us through His Word. Will we listen? Really listen? If my sweet old dog can exhibit such attentiveness and expectancy over some scrambled eggs, surely we can approach the eternal spiritual sustenance the Lord God longs to give each of us with equal fervor and hunger. He has spoken. He is speaking. He will speak. Come hungry and expectant to His banquet table! To God, our Sustenance, our Living Word, be the glory.

A Lesson from my Dog

Early this morning, our sweet old dog, Moses, and I went for a walk. Moses is teaching me a number of lessons, one of which is patience. When I say sweet "old" dog, I mean it. He has slowed down considerably over the past year. We used to run together, but we "graduated" to walking briskly about a year ago--frankly, we're both thankful since Moses and I have clearly aged out of the pounding and stress running puts on our bodies. But now our formerly brisk, semi-long walks have "graduated" to shorter and shorter veeeeeeeeery slow walks. You simply cannot imagine how many things there apparently are to smell on the greenway. Bushes, trees, branches, blades of grass, trash, and certain unmentionables left behind by other dogs, just to name a few. Unbelievable! And, apparently, the smells are so fascinating and scintillating that the thought of actually continuing to move and walk lose all appeal for Moses. Meanwhile, I am pulling (HARD) trying to get him to budge, so we can get some exercise, and, I'm embarrassed to say, sometimes growing irritated and impatient with our GLACIAL pace.

Even writing this convicts me of how this reflects my complete lack of patience and my inability to wait--in general--with a contented, peaceful heart. How often do I bustle through my day, oblivious to God's agenda or the people He puts in my path? And how frequently am I ungrateful for all the blessings strewn in my path, because I am on to bigger and better things (or so I suppose)? Lord forgive me!

You know, you can learn an awful lot from a dog. Yeah, yeah, you think, I've heard all about slowing down to smell the roses, but, gracious, isn't it sad how frequently we fail to do just that? And just think about what dogs are smelling! If they can enjoy smelling whatever disgusting thing it is they like to smell, how can we not slacken our frantic pace a bit to appreciate the dainty sliver of the new moon or the gentle sound of the wind in the pine trees or the raucous laughter of our teenager's carpool? Are we really too busy and rushed not to notice that exhausted grocery bagger or that lonely widow or that overwhelmed teacher? Surely I can meander a bit more in my day--even if it's only in my heart and my attitude--so that I can pause and thank the Lord for the bracing air of winter or the sound of a favorite song or the taste of a chewy bagel.

I may have mentioned it before, but one of my favorite quotes is from Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain (don't ask me who that is--I read his quote in a book):

"Every time you feel in God's creatures something pleasing and attractive, do not let your attention be arrested by them alone, but, passing them by, transfer your thought to God and say: 'O my God, if Thy creations are so full of beauty, delight and joy, how infinitely more full of beauty, delight and joy art Thou Thyself, Creator of all!"

Amen! Any God who could create a black labrador, or really most any dog (but especially labs), must be pretty incredible, indeed! Or the mind that could conceive of giraffes and tigers and elephants and anteaters--can you imagine?! Or the beauty of gently falling snow or the haunting sound of hoot owls, or the majestic power of waterfalls. Just today, as Moses and I walked along, I looked up and saw the fingernail sliver of a new moon outlined by the bare branches of the trees, and I thought, such is my Creator Lord! I couldn't help but be reminded of the line from Shakespeare describing winter's tree branches, "bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."

I've only touched on the lessons a dog can teach us (O, yes, there is more to be mined on this wonderful subject!), but for today, Lord, teach us to slow down and taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps.34:8). We can't taste and see His goodness and greatness if we don't have hearts attuned to Him and slacken our pace--at least in our perspective and our attitude--to see Him reflected in His creatures and His creation.

I may still be pulling hard on Moses' leash, but I'll be praising God in my heart for the stout heart of a dog and the strength of an arm and the lushness of that alluring blade of grass! O, if a dog could be so loyal and loving, imagine the God who made the dog! "How infinitely more full of beauty, delight, and joy, art Thou Thyself Creator of all!" To our creative, good and great God, be all the glory.

A Lonely Woman

Early this morning, I was reading through my One Year Bible, and it was some tough sledding, I must say. I read about all the regulations for infectious skin diseases and mildew in houses and men with discharges. As I read, my attitude was less than stellar. Why on earth is all of this in here, I wondered. When will I get through all this? And, good grief, this is so gross! Not exactly a reverential approach to God's Word.

I read about the regulations for a woman's time of the month (she is impure for 7 days afterward and anyone who touches her is unclean for 7 days). And then I read these verses: "When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge... Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean... and anything she sits on will be unclean... Whoever touches them will be unclean..." (Leviticus 15:25-27) I couldn't help contemplating the terrible isolation and embarrassment of such a woman. She is unclean, virtually anything she touches is unclean, and any person who not only touches her but touches anything she has touched is unclean. How awful, how defective, how alone must such a woman feel?

And then it hit me. Such was the woman who fearfully but desperately touched the hem of Jesus' robe. Remember her? Jesus was busy, surrounded by huge crowds, and He was on His way to the home of the very important Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, to ultimately heal his young daughter. Surely He should have been a bit overwhelmed by the teeming horde surrounding Him and preoccupied by the critical task He was about to perform (which actually ended up being the raising of the young girl from the dead).

How could He not have been preoccupied or overwhelmed? Boy, we sure would have been. O, but not our Savior. He is never too busy, never too rushed, never too focused on something else more pressing, never too engrossed in His own agenda to fail to love and heal and encourage a seeking or hopeless heart.

And surely she knew hopelessness and desperation and loneliness. Luke 8 tells us she had suffered from "a discharge of blood for 12 years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone." (Lk 8:43) Think of it: 12 years of being unclean. 12 years of contaminating anything she sat upon or lay upon. 12 years of other people fearful to be even just in her general vicinity for fear of being made unclean. Did she have children or a husband? We don't know, but if she did, I'm betting they weren't ever in her presence. And since she spent all her living on doctors, it sounds like she might not have had any kind of family to help her or encourage her through her long, dark nightmare of loneliness and disgrace.

Have you ever experienced such piercing loneliness that you felt utterly bereft? Have you ever felt like such a failure or so disgraced or so alienated that you were overwhelmed with the sense of desperation or discouragement or defeat? I just cannot begin to imagine her loneliness and despair... but my Savior can. He, too, would experience agonizing loneliness and rejection and betrayal and shame when He bore your sins and my sins, on a lonely cross, located "outside the camp" at Calvary.

But back to this woman. We're told that "She came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His garment, and immediately the discharge of blood ceased. And Jesus said, 'Who was it that touched Me?' When all denied it, Peter said, 'Master, the crowds surround You and are pressing in on you!' But Jesus said, 'Someone touched Me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.' And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before Him, declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched Him, and how she had been immediately healed. And He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace." (Lk 8:44-48)

He is God. He knows all things, and yet He asked who had touched Him. I kept thinking about that. Why would He do that? I'm guessing it had nothing to do with Jesus not knowing who had touched Him. I'm thinking my Sovereign all-knowing Lord asked the question not for Himself but for that poor, lonely woman's sake. Look at her--trembling, fearful, hidden, and then for the first time in 12 years, she comes out into the open and declares that she has been healed. Healed! Whole for the first time for as long as she can remember. I wonder is she had forgotten what it was like to hear the sound of her voice speaking out loud to real people. To feel what it was like not to be a pariah, sneaking around, trying to make herself invisible.

You know, Jesus could have just allowed her to be healed by touching the hem of His garment and then letting her slink off. And that would have been pretty spectacular--to be healed of a terrible, mysterious illness that had isolated and impoverished her. But then, she wouldn't have heard the sound of His voice. Or seen the soft but piercing gaze of His eyes upon her--only upon her. Or heard Him, the Almighty Savior, call her "daughter." Or heard His commendation that "your faith has healed you." Or listened to the glorious, unforgettable words, "Go in peace" spoken by the only One in the world who could actually give her true and lasting peace.

And neither would we.

O what a Savior. O what grace and goodness and thoughtfulness.

You can bet she was never ever the same. She had been healed, but more importantly, she had been recognized and known and encouraged and loved by the Savior.

I don't know what you might be enduring right now. Perhaps you have lost a dearly beloved husband or wife or child. Perhaps you feel like a failure. Perhaps you are overwhelmed with discouragement or fear or futility. Will you, like this woman, come to the Savior? Will you take your loneliness or sorrow or hopelessness to Him and trust Him with your heart and your hurt? He may heal in some dramatic way. Or He may simply give you a sense of His presence and His power and His peace as never before in the midst of whatever you are enduring. We may not always understand His ways. But we can know Him and His incomparable love and His amazing grace and His supernatural peace.

Just like a lonely desperate woman on a dusty road in the midst of a teeming crowd over 2000 years ago.

He still heals. He still knows. He still comforts. He still encourages. He still loves. He is still the Lord of the lonely. And He still redeems and restores... one person at a time. To the gracious, loving, kind and powerful Savior, be all the glory.