God Is Thinking of You

[W]hat are people that you should think about them, mere mortals that you should care for them?

Psalm 8:4

I can't read Psalm 8:4 without remembering how it sounds in the older translations: "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" (KJV). And I can’t hear the classic translation of this verse without thinking of Emerson Hall at Harvard University. That’s where the philosophy department was located, so, as a “phil” major, I spent hundreds of hours in Emerson Hall. This center of humanistic thinking, where most teachers and students were at best agnostic, if not atheistic, had carved into stone on the outside of the building this line from Psalm 8. Inside it could have been, "What is God that thou are mindful of him?" Yet, outside, it said in permanent stone: "What is man that Thou art mindful of him." (For a photo of this inscription, check my website.)

Increasingly, our society is filled with people who look upon God with arrogance. Their haughty pride is about as far from the attitude of Psalm 8 as one can get. Yet for those of us who know God, we are amazed that God thinks of us and cares for us. More amazing still is the fact that God loves us so much he took our sin upon himself in his Son, so that we might have relationship with God forever. Amazing!

God is thinking of you today because he cares about you. He has created you like him and has redeemed you so that you might live your life with him and be a partner in his work in this world.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: Do you ever stop to think that the God of the universe is thinking of you? How does that make you feel? What difference might this truth make in your life?

PRAYER: O Lord, how easily I can take all of this for granted. Of course you are thinking of me. I’ve known this pretty much my whole life. It’s old news.

But then I step back for a moment from my presumption. I think of the fact that the God of the universe cares about me. Me? Me! Astounding! This may be old news, but it is still good news.

Thank you, awesome God, for thinking of me. Thank you for paying attention to me and for desiring relationship with me. Thank you for opening up through Christ a way for me to know you and live my life with you. How wonderful you are to me! Amen.