Sometimes cries for help are left unanswered.

Sometimes well-meaning bystanders, are simply that; bystanders.

Sometimes hard days turn into hard weeks which turn into hard months.

Sometimes you can work your fingers, your mind and your heart to the very bone, to last neural pathway and to the last muscle, and still have nothing to show for it.

And yet.

The bright new day does follow the darkness of night.

Help is found in the new and sometimes surprising places.

Rewards, they do come, just not in the form that others would see and readily acknowledge.

It takes patience and perseverance to see the beauty in the ashes, much of the time.

When the world is all topsy turvey with pandemics and economic and political unrest, when citizens rage and damage and peace can feel like a far off and costly commodity, the only thing that brings lasting comfort and a nearness that really adheres is remembering the truths found in Him.

Lord you know everything there is to know about me.

You perceive every movement of my heart and soul, and you understand my every thought before it even enters my mind.

You are so intimately aware of me, Lord.

You read my heart like an open book and you know all the words I’m about to speak before I even start a sentence!

You know every step I will take before my journey even begins.

You’ve gone into my future to prepare the way, and in kindness you follow behind me to spare me from the harm of my past.

Psalm 139

When we want to run and hide and take shelter – there’s really no need. The God whose hands crafted humanity from the dust, and that are the hands that grasp Mary’s finger as she looks on her infant God with awe (nod to Fr Kenneth Tanner for that), are the same hands that belong to him who KNOWS everything there is to know about you. And me.

He perceives every wretched movement of our hearts and souls – there’s nothing we can think that will shock him or surprise Him.

He knows us. In and out. Upside down, inside out and back to front. In the same way that we can watch a newborn’s face for hours, as we yearn to know them, to decipher their utterings, their grunts, their miniscule movements, He watches us and has watched us. He knows. Us.

We build up walls around our heart. With trusted ones we pull down those walls, brick by brick, just enough to see through the peepholes and explore some sense of safety. Yet, God, His x-ray vision powers through. He knows every nook and every cranny of our very core.

We plan and we set goals, we diarize and we pop things in our calendars. Our days and weeks are scheduled to the last minute. Whatever we can control and define and prioritize and make happen, we will. But there are no surprises to God. He knows the steps that make up our journeys.

Just think on this for a moment – He’s gone into our future to prepare the way. Read it again. Doesn’t that just ooze peace to you? When anxious thoughts take over your mind, and elephants sit on our chests, let’s read those words again. In kindness He follows behind us, to spare us from the harm of our past.

Sigh.

Yes, indeed, sometimes our cries for help are unanswered by others in our worlds.

Sometimes well-meaning bystanders are simply that; bystanders.

Sometimes hard days turn into hard weeks which turn into hard months.

Sometimes you can work your fingers, your mind and your heart to the very bone, to the last neural pathway and to the last muscle, and still have nothing to show for it.

But. Through it all wherever we go, His hand will guide us.

His strength will empower us.

It’s impossible to disappear from Him.

In Him we are fully known.