Stooping Down

I threw my back out on Mother's Day. The hardest thing has been bending down to get things, put on my socks, etc. You take energy and strength for granted until you don't have it. I'll be more careful next time (famous last words).

At our mid-week Bible study last night we spent time digesting Psalm 113. It's a great expression of praise. When I got home the following truth just wouldn't leave me alone.

Psalms 113:5-6 (NIV) Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth.

God has to come a long way to get to us. We forget how godly God is, how holy, how pure, how righteous, how eternal, how other than us He is. He is not only above the earth, He is above the heavens. He is "on high" and I'm not sure we can even grasp the idea of "on high."

What we do grasp is life down here. We understand need. We know dust and the ash heap. We know barrenness and unhappiness. We are connected to down here.

God sees us in our life down here because He makes the effort to be involved in what we are experiencing. He "stoops down" to be involved in our lives. I think the NIV doesn't capture this quite well enough when it says He "stoops down to look." Other versions translate this He "humbles Himself to behold." He's not just bending down to look down on us. He is getting down at our level and seeing the world at the level we see it. In fact, in human form Jesus experienced life as we experience it.

God not only sees our lives, but He gets involved. He helps us to find happiness even when circumstances are terrible. He turns our circumstances around. He lifts us up. In all our heaviness, when we feel like we're buried under our circumstance, God can easily handle the lifting.

With my back in pain reaching down wasn't easy. I was motivated. What was "down there" was worth the pain. I wanted to get dressed and I needed socks on my feet.

God demonstrates His love by "humbling Himself to behold" our lives. We're worth it to Him. Our problems are worth His time. Our heartaches matter enough to Him for Him to stoop down through heaven and down to earth.

Our response is to trust and praise Him. Louie Giglio describes worship like this - to "gaze long upon the Cross of Christ, fully absorb His beauty and pain, respond accordingly."

Psalm 113:1-3 (NIV) Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to it's going down the Lord's name is to be praised.