Where Are You, God?

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18

Have you ever been punched in the gut?

As a kid, I was literally punched in the stomach by a neighborhood boy and to this day I remember the

physical effects of that blow.  

I immediately doubled over, my stomach feeling as though I had just been hit with a baseball bat instead of his fist. The wind literally knocked out of me.  

I struggled to get a good breath while also struggling to figure out what had just happened.

I had a similar experience on July 9, 1995 when my daughter Jamie almost died. 

As the ER doctor delivered the news to us that our Birthday Girl would not be celebrating with family and friends at her party, but would instead spend her birthday in the hospital fighting for her life, I felt that same feeling of having the wind knocked out of me and trying to figure out what had just happened.  

I was truly brokenhearted...and scared.

I knew since her diagnosis in late May of that same year that the cancer (bilateral retinoblastoma) she had could take her away from us, but I tried very hard not to live in that fear.

But now that fear was no longer just a shadow. It was my reality and there was no trying very hard not to live in it.  

I was in it and it was swallowing me whole.

What is swallowing you whole today?

Is it grief?

Are you burdened by things out of your control?

Is your spirit crushed because of someone close to you?

Are you living a false identity someone else gave you?

My dear friend, our God is close to those who are broken, rejected, burdened, and/or lost. 

Our God is not a distant God, living worlds away from us ignorant of what is happening in our world.  

On the contrary, He is very involved with His creation; even coming down from Heaven to provide for us. (John 1:14)

He is a God that shares in our humanity and as such He knows grief. We see his heart deeply troubled when His friend Lazarus died and He wept (John 11:33-36).

He knows rejection. 

Luke 19:41-42 recounts that Jesus wept as He saw the city of Jerusalem. They weren't tears of self-pity but of sorrow for those who rejected Him because He knew the fate that awaited them. 

What love He has for His dear children even while they are still sinning!

He knew us before we were formed in our mother's womb (Jeremiah 1:5) and He knows us still today (Matthew 6:8).

Our God goes before us and does not leave nor forsake us (Deut. 31:8)

While a team of medical personnel inserted a feeding tube into my listless 1-year-old daughter, I walked out of the room completely consumed with fear and unable to watch the horror unfolding before me. 

Just a few steps away from all the chaos of that hospital room, I collapsed onto the floor and into the arms

of the One who was close to me and my broken heart.  

Friend, God is so close that He already knows what we need (Matthew 6:8). 

When things in life happen that take our breath away, remember that the One who gave you breath and thought about you with His last breath is close to the brokenhearted. 

Are you close to Him?