If You Know Where to Look

“The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” (Ps 145:8-9 kjb)

We live in a negative world.  We see the effects of sin all around us.  Just the other day, I read a story of a young lady who almost saved a victim of Jeffery Dahmer.  Mr. Dahmer, whom I believe was the Devil incarnate, killed and ate many victims.  The story went on to tell how one of his victims escaped and ran into the arms of the writer of the story.  As a seventeen-year-old teenager, she tried to warn police of the evil of this man, but they wouldn’t listen.  They returned this naked victim to Jeffery believing the two were in a mutual relationship.  The thing is, this all occurred in the city which I now call home.  Evil is all around us.  We see it every day.  Not just crime.  We see immorality.  We see drug use.  On my own street, there are two bars but a stone's throw from my house.  It is not out of the ordinary to converse with a drunk who is on his way home from binge drinking.  We read of shootings, car accidents, and now, pestilence.  We turn on the news and hear nothing but negative reporting.  Most of it driven by dishonest media sympathetic to its own agenda.  We are hammered by one unfortunate story after another.  It is easy to forget that God’s grace still shines upon that which He has created.

God is good, all the time.  We just need to look for His blessings.  Each morning, around 4:45 – 5:00, there is a bird that sings outside our bedroom window.  A few mornings ago, my wife and I were not sleeping well and we both woke up to the signing of that bird.  We had opposite reactions.  I love the morning woods.  There is nothing more relaxing to me than to hear and see the morning woods wake up before the heat of the day quiets the wilderness.  As a turkey hunter, there were many mornings I sat under a tree beginning at 4:00 am and watched the sun come up.  Before there is enough light to read words off the page of a book, the birds begin their day.  They are out, getting the earthworms who have not retreated below ground.  They call out to one another.  They call out to prospective mates.  Then there are the cardinals who call back and forth outside my house.  Usually, they do so in the evening.  My dog and I go out so that he can do his business, but while we are out there, we hear the cardinals calling back and forth.  My wife?  She rolls over and says, “I’m gonna shoot that bird!  He wakes me up every morning.”  The blessings of God are there.  You just have to know how to look for them.

David shares his impression of the mercies of God as he pens, “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.” (Ps 103:13 KJB)  We forget that our fathers care for us.  We see him primarily as an authority figure who lays down the law then lays down those who do not follow the law.  We forget the father that taught us and disciplined us also spent time with us as we fished or went to a ball game.  The father that corrected us was also the father that protected us.  The father that sent us to our room was also the father that took us out for a movie and an ice cream.  We fail to see the LORD as a God who is tender and merciful because we are not acclimated to look for it.  We fail to see the grace of life because the trials of life seem bigger.  We fail to see the provisions of life because we notice our needs far quicker.  We fail to hear the words of encouragement and pleasure because we are so focused on our failures.  We are blind to the blessings of life because we are murmuring too much at the curses.  God is good.  All the time.  His tender mercies are all around us.  This is what David said and he didn’t lie.  If we do not believe it, it is because we cannot see it.  We cannot see it because we are not looking for it.  Those mercies are there whether we acknowledge them or not.  It is time to notice the sunrise rather than the storm clouds.  His mercies are there!