By Pastor Don Schatz

God in the Open

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“The eyes of all look to you….”
Psalm 145:15a English Standard Version

We are 7 days into 2023.  Have you put away your Christmas decorations?  It is still winter.  Nothing new about that.  Look out the window and, depending on where you live, you see snow, or rain, birds thankful for your feeder, kids playing and having fun.  What else do you see?  As the new year, one week old, lies before you, what do you look for as you look ahead?

Long ago, the Psalmist assumed that all God’s people look to him, because he provides for them.  Looking to God is not the same as looking for God.  Looking to God assumes we can already see him.  We are not trying to find him in the days before us, already filling with responsibilities of all sorts as

we look ahead.  So here is the first reminder for a new year.  God is still with you.  You looked to him last year, keep looking to him this year.  He is faithful.

God does not hide on us.  That was Adam and Eve, remember?  After disobeying God, they heard (rather than looking) him walking in Eden.  And they hid from him.  God does not hide from us.  Not even when we do wrong.  He comes to us, as he did to Adam and Eve.  He comes with us, as he did in his portable home, the Tabernacle, and as he does in Jesus.

The second reminder today is to keep doing what the Psalm verse says.  Keep on looking to God.  Such looking is believing.  It is trusting.  Our believing is not in vain.  Our trusting is not in vain.  God is faithful.  Look to him in his Word.  Look to him in the community of the Church.  Look to him as he dwells within you.  Look to him in prayer.  Look to God.  God is not hiding from you.  He is in the open, for you and for all to see.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado