“Your
path led through the sea,
your way through the mighty waters,
though your footprints were not seen.”
(Psalm 77:19)
One
of the things I enjoy about live theater, perhaps more than the actors
themselves, is the stagecraft. (Maybe
it’s because I was on stage crew in high school.) People work behind the scenes to pull off
audience-pleasing effects. They dart
out, dressed all in black, when the lights are darkened between scenes, to
reset the stage. A good theatrical crew
member is invisible, never seen or noticed by the people in the seats.
Similarly,
movie production crews don’t want you to be able to tell the difference between
live action and computer-generated images (or CGIs). If the dragon seems as real as the Hollywood
superstar riding on its back, the animators have accomplished their goal. They don’t want people to realize that
they’ve done anything at all.
Just
like God.
The
author of Psalm 77 describes his distress about feeling separated from the
Lord. He remembers his “songs in the
night” and joy that God had brought into his life. But now that joy is gone. Had God forgotten him? Had the Lord rejected and abandoned him in
anger? Eventually he finds consolation
by remembering “the deeds of the Lord,” and his miracles from long ago. Recalling God’s faithful actions in the past gives
him the confidence in God’s continuing care and guidance that he needs to
persevere. Even though he can not feel
the Lord’s power in his life, he knows that it is real.
Psalm
77 offers an encouraging perspective for those times when God seems
absent. When the psalmist considers
God’s powerful actions in the past, he remembers how he parted the Red Sea to
lead the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt.
As the 19th verse puts it, God’s path led through the sea,
even though his “footprints were not seen.”
As
I read this verse, I recognize how God is invisibly at work during the times
when he feels distant from me, and when his love seems as remote as a favorite
song from long ago. God has not rejected
me or abandoned me. He is not too busy
keeping the universe spinning to remember little puny insignificant me. I am never puny or insignificant or forgotten
in the eyes of God. And neither are you. He is working mighty deeds and powerful
actions all around us, all the time. His
blessings are present every moment of every day, and he pours his love upon us
like the waters of Niagara Falls. God
does great things, but his footprints are not always seen.
You
may not see God’s footprints in your life.
But he is acting in power to show his love and to change your life.
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