Timothy wanted up and then he wanted down. He wanted to swing and then he didn’t. He would play contentedly for a few minutes then he would see Thomas hadn’t finished his snack yet so he wanted a bite too. His mama picked him up and snuggled him. He grinned and giggled before wiggling down again. What he wanted was his daddy. He saw daddy’s truck in the driveway but he was outside and daddy was inside. When dad was at work, it hadn’t been an issue. But now that his truck was parked in its familiar spot, nothing else would do.
“How many minutes until I can wake daddy up?” asked Thomas.
“Three minutes,” answered my daughter.
“Has it been three minutes yet?” queried Thomas almost immediately.
“By the time you load all your tools into your wheelbarrow, it will be three minutes,” Mama answered diplomatically.
I scooped up Timothy and a handful of gardening tools to speed up the process. They were all up the stairs in no time as I headed to the kitchen to start dinner for the boys. Mom and dad would have a rare dinner date this evening.
It’s difficult for us to divide our time and attention between our children and grandchildren so we assume it must be difficult for our Heavenly Father also. I have news for you. God is one hundred percent present and lavishes His undivided attention on each individual alive in every moment of time. Omnipresence and omniscience are traits belonging exclusively to God. His word assures us of His supernatural qualities and when taken together, illumined by the Holy Spirit, an incomprehensible picture of God is revealed.
When Moses encountered God in a burning bush in the desert of Sinai, he asked for God’s name. God, for His part, had already identified Himself as “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Moses first asks, “who am I that I should go to Pharoah and lead these people?” Surely his own past had just caught up with him as he watched scenes of his final days in Egypt play out in his mind. We have a way of mentally blocking things we don’t want to remember and God may allow it for a time. But there’s this matter of His sovereignty at work. To Moses’s doubt-filled who am I, “God said, I will surely be with you; and this shall be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain [Horeb, or Sinai].
And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM and WHAT I AM, and I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE; and He said, You shall say this to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you!”
Exodus 3:12, 14 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/exo.3.12-14.AMPC
I was familiar with the I AM of God but until recently I was unaware that the same name is repeated in God’s initial reply to Moses. Read it again without the surely interrupting. God said, “Surely, I will be with you.” Ehyeh is the Hebrew translated I AM in both instances. I AM with you and I AM WHO I AM, or I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE. Think about the implications. God’s assignment for Moses was not dependent on Moses’s speaking ability, his pull with Pharoah, his familiarity with the Israelites, or sheer charisma. Almighty God was as present in Egypt in that moment as He was with Moses. After all, He heard the groans of the people and now was His appointed time to answer. All He wanted was Moses’s recognition and availability. Isaiah’s reply comes readily to mind.
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord.
He said, “Who will I send? Who will go for us?”
I said, “Here I am. Send me!””
Isaiah 6:8 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/isa.6.8.NIRV
“The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living.
It’s our handle on what we can’t see.
The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.
Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing.
How did they do it?
They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world.
People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home.
If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted.
But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country.
You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.
“Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.
You believe in God.
Believe in me also.
There are many rooms in my Father’s house.
If this were not true, would I have told you that I am going there?
Would I have told you that I would prepare a place for you there?
If I go and do that, I will come back.
And I will take you to be with me.
Then you will also be where I am.”
John 14:1-3 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/jhn.14.1-3.NIRV
Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised.
God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.”
Hebrews 11:1-2, 13-16, 39-40 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/heb.11.13-40.MSG
When my children were very young, I began leading an after school Bible club at their elementary school sponsored by Child Evangelism Fellowship. My youngest, only four at the time, loved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and he also loved helping me prepare the snacks for club. Peanut allergies and restrictions being what they are now, we never would have been allowed to bring homemade goodies, much less pb&j sandwiches, but this was eons ago. I bought loaves of bread and jars of peanut butter and grape jelly. Our club averaged sixty kids on any given week plus a few teen leaders with a sweet tooth, so I made as many sandwiches as I could afford at the time. Understandably, the contents were spread thin to make them go far enough. Not one of the kid’s complained, but one of the leaders did! I may have reminded him that the snacks were for the children.
Perhaps you’re feeling spread particularly thin today. Maybe there don’t seem to be enough hours in a day. Maybe the payments are due and payday is still a week away. You may be awake more hours a day than is healthy. Balancing your responsibilities may seem more like juggling knives or flaming torches in this circus called life. Have you ever considered that maybe you’re being stretched to learn to rely more fully on God? Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh. I AM WHO I AM, I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE, is with you.
“Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on?
It means we’d better get on with it.
Strip down, start running—and never quit!
No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.
Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in.
Study how he did it.
Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever.
And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.
When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through.
That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
Unlike your ancestors, you didn’t come to Mount Sinai—all that volcanic blaze and earthshaking rumble—to hear God speak.
The earsplitting words and soul-shaking message terrified them and they begged him to stop.
When they heard the words—“If an animal touches the Mountain, it’s as good as dead”—they were afraid to move. Even Moses was terrified.
No, that’s not your experience at all.
You’ve come to Mount Zion, the city where the living God resides.
The invisible Jerusalem is populated by throngs of festive angels and Christian citizens.
It is the city where God is Judge, with judgments that make us just.
You’ve come to Jesus, who presents us with a new covenant, a fresh charter from God.
He is the Mediator of this covenant.
The murder of Jesus, unlike Abel’s—a homicide that cried out for vengeance—became a proclamation of grace.
Do you see what we’ve got?
An unshakable kingdom!
And do you see how thankful we must be?
Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God.
For God is not an indifferent bystander.
He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed.
God himself is Fire!”
Hebrews 12:1-3, 18-24, 28-29 MSG
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