Minute Meditations

We have just had the good fortune of a visit by our one year old granddaughter and her mother. Having a baby in the house again was very exciting and we thoroughly enjoyed her cute little antics. One thing she took great delight in doing was to run away from us. Even before learning to walk she did this by crawling away as fast as she could. Walking or crawling, it took only a few quick steps by an adult to overtake the fleeing tike and bring her back.

As we watched her run away and get caught, run away and get caught again and again, our mind went back to the story of Jonah and his desire to run away from God. Jonah had even less of an opportunity to really run away from God than did our little granddaughter in getting away from us. We often sing ”Where can we hide, or whither fly, Lord, to escape Thy piercing eye?” The answer, of course, is ”Nowhere.” In another hymn we sing, ”Lord Thou hast searched and seen us through; Thine eye commands with piercing view, our rising and our resting hours, our hearts and minds with all their powers.”

We cannot get away from God and it is childish to think we can. Paul said, ”When I was a child, I spake as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” It is important that we grow up and stop trying to run away from God. Some never grow up. Some spend their entire life running but never getting anywhere. Where can we go? Where can we go away from God? He possesses heaven and earth, how can we get away from Him? It is not as though we could go to another god. ”Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.”

Remember the incident when Jesus said some ”hard” sayings. Many of his disciples were offended and ”from that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, ”Will ye also go away?” Loveable Peter had the right answer, ”Lord, to whom shall we go?” thou hast the words of eternal life.” Yes, where does one go who goes away from Jesus? To another redeemer? another saviour? ”To whom shall we go?” Only away.

Many people do not love God for they do not know Him. We cannot love the unknown. As we get acquainted with God through His Book, we come to love Him. He wants us to love Him. Our granddaughter had to get reacquainted with us all over again for she had not seen us since she was seven months old. At that young age, they forget. We remembered her and loved her but she had forgotten us. In a sense this is the way it is with God. He loves us, He remembers.

God asks the question through Isaiah, ”Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” It seems unthinkable that a mother could forget her baby, yet that is more likely than for God to forget us.

Our granddaughter has now returned to Eastern Canada and will soon forget us again. We understand and accept this for she is a child, but if she forgot us when she was older and mature, then her forgetting would grieve us. God expects us to be mature and not forget. Seven times in the 119th Psalm David declares that he will not forget. ”I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.” is how he puts it in verse 16. Let us nat forget. Let us not run away from God ”for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.”