Psalm 77:1 - "I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me."
God is amazing. The things he sees. The things he hears. They're often invisible to the rest of us.
Yesterday, after a wonderful time away with my children, I returned to Tony's, the best breakfast-lunch, burger-hot dog place in the world. After fourteen years of regular visits, I know a few people there. But I'm sure I need to know more because I'm sure I miss things that I should see. Like yesterday.
Everybody looked happy to me with a big tray of food in front of each. But Misty, who's the owner Joseph's wife, motioned to me and pointed me to a table where a solitary person sat, yes, with a big tray of food in front, but just kind of staring into space. So I went over and sat down in front of this person, who I'd never seen in my life, and they immediately looked at me, reached to grab my hands, started to cry, and bowed to pray, as if saying, "Pray with me. Pray for me. Please!" So we did.
And just as we hear in today's Bible verse, God did.
So what did Misty see with that person that none of the rest of us saw. Misty saw what God saw because she was looking as God looks. In our weakness, we tend to focus on the hot dog. But God is always focused on the heart, which is plainly seen through the eyes and body language, if someone will just look.
God is looking.
And therefore sees and hears our cries.
He sees us in a vast humanity, suffering, silently pleading for someone to come sit at our booth and look us in the eye and take our hand and pray with us.
I've cried out that way. Stood in my office. Sat in the sanctuary. Or my car. Countless times. Heavy-hearted with my own or someone else's brokenness. Looking up toward God. Tears rolling. Begging for some help.
And you have too. In your own places. With your own or someone else's brokenness.
And God saw. And God heard.
And God did something about it. With his presence. With his hands. Reaching to us in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Sitting down in our booth. Taking our hands. Bowing his head to say, "Pray with me. I hear you. I see you. I know your pains and your sorrow."
It is given to us only to believe.
And to look for hearts more than hot dogs.
And to sit down next to someone and pray as in Psalm 77:1, "I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me."
Praise God!
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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