"The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds." - Psalm 33:13-15
So, yesterday, I'm standing in line at the world's best giant burger place, Tony's Hot Dog Shop in Pelham, Alabama.
This guy walks past me. He carries himself like a humble, but very fit, laborer. He also carries a tray with a Giant Tony Burger on it. No Fries.
So he sits at this two-seater table with another guy who also has a giant burger, but this other guy also has a mound of fries on his plate. Immediately, burger-fries guy excuses himself and heads to the restroom. Burger-no-fries guy never hesitates and bows his head and prays.
And it was a long prayer. Like a longer than "Pastor-Chris-this-is-the-prayer-time-in-worship-not-another-sermon" prayer. I mean, the burger-no-fries guy's prayer is so long that I started to wonder if maybe he'd fallen asleep. But I'm definitely not wondering if this guy believes in prayer and knows and loves the Lord. Burger-no-fries guy definitely loves Jesus.
Then he opens his eyes.
But then all in one motion he lifts up his head and turns around like he's looking to see if his burger-plus-fries friend is returning from the restroom. And not spotting fries-friend, he swings his head and eyes and hand around and he grabs a bunch of his friend's fries and crams 'em in his mouth. And he's looking around the room looking like Cookie Monster's cousin, Fries Monster, with a mouth full of fries. And he's clearly looking to see if anybody else spotted him steal the fries right on the heals of his Billy Graham Crusade length prayer to the Living God.
I guess I was unaware that I was wearing Harry Potter's invisibility cloak because I'm not standing twelve feet away from the guy (and I'm in my pastor clothes, no less) and he never once looks at me to see if I saw him steal the fries even though I've been staring him down and watching all this for the last five minutes.
Well, he may not have seen me staring at him, but surely such a religious guy knows that "The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man...and observes all their deeds" (Psalm 33:13-15).
But ya' know, on second thought, what am I even talking about? I do stupid stuff like that all the time. One moment, I'm the holiest man alive, and the next moment, I'm calling some poor soul a hick or redneck. Of course, I only say it in my heart, so who's gonna' know? Oh yeah, "The Lord [who] looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man...and observes all their deeds" (Psalm 33:13-15).
He's gonna' know.
I don't know about you. But I sure am glad that the God (the only God) who observes all my deeds uses those same eyes to gaze on me and have compassion (Matthew 15:32) and uses those eyes to look down from his cross and ask God, the Father (Luke 23:34) to forgive my sin because I don't know what I'm doin'.
No, I don't know what I'm doin' any more or any less than Big-prayin'-French-Fry-stealing burger man.
May God have mercy on us all!
And thank God that, in Jesus Christ, he has!!!
Praise God!
(For an archive of "Day of Praise", please visit my daughter Calley's website at http://dayofpraisepc.blogspot.com/?m=1)
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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