God has a texting plan! Well, ok, maybe that is not entirely accurate. God doesn’t actually need a texting plan.
Let me back up. I didn’t really have a clue about text messaging until a few months ago when communication with our very busy worship/youth pastor required that I be able to get in touch with him. Prior to that, when I saw someone actually typing on their cell phone, I thought it seemed like such a worthless and time consuming endeavor. “Why don’t you just call them?,” I wondered!
Emailing or calling Pastor Tony didn’t work, so I tried something on a whim I never had done before…I shot him a text message from my cell phone. To my joy and utter surprise, I got a response! I discovered very quickly that when needing to get or give information to Pastor Tony, nothing was as efficient as texting! I bought a texting plan and my world hasn’t been the same since, though, I don’t typically use texting for anyone else.
Last weekend, my 15 year old baby 🙂 went on a evangelism trip to Costa Mesa. She had never been away from home before. Suddenly texting took on a whole new meaning. Throughout the day (and night) she could shoot me a text or I could ask her where she was and what she was doing. It was incredible to get to participate in her life that way…getting little glimpses into what she was doing. I knew when she ate, when she slept (when she didn’t!), when the adults on the trip got to sneak in a shower at the gym across the street, when they stopped for gas or snacks, when they arrived at the evangelism conference and when they went to the beach to witness.
She made it through (and so did I), I think partly because I could actually feel like I was involved through what had before seemed like such a silly technology–that of texting. It was super cool when she shot me a photo of her at that very moment at the beach while the group was talking to a homeless man named Jim. There was my baby! I felt like I was there! I knew about what she was doing and going through!
The other day, as I was going through Psalm 139 which the HEAL book has had us focus on quite a bit, it struck me why this Psalm is such a testimony of God’s love for us.
and you know me.
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
you are familiar with all my ways.
you know it completely, O LORD.
He used my text messaging Michaela all last weekend to demonstrate the fact that his involvement is proof of his love (as if I need that after Romans 5:8 and other texts).
While my baby was on the trip, I wanted to know her sitting, rising, going out and lying down…I wanted to know if she had brushed her teeth and what she had eaten. Why? Because I love her so much! I didn’t spend my time texting any of the other kids on the trip. Why? Because they don’t have my heart like Michaela does.
It struck me that this is the way the Lord is…he is so intimately acquainted with me and wants to know all about me (and does, in his omniscience) because he loves me so much. If he didn’t love me, he wouldn’t bother with knowing all my ways…So, what would the Lord say in a text message? He knows all my ways and cares intimately about it all…what is on his heart to convey to me?
I wanted to know every bit about my daughter while she was gone. Every breath, every step, everything she was learning…I wanted to know it all. And I couldn’t stop telling her how much I missed her and loved her. I wanted to know more. Because I am not omniscient, I relied on text messaging! 🙂 God relies on his omniscience to accomplish the same thing…all because he loves me so very much!
