At the moment we’re in the middle of 10 weeks of #doyouknowHim? and as part of that we’re out in Ramsbottom every Saturday morning blessing the community with God’s love. #doyouknowHim? came from the church in Skipton who did a similar 10 weeks last year and continue to regularly spend time in the community blessing those they meet.
One thing that Skipton have done that we have chosen not to do is take blankets out in the town, enfold people in them and pray over them the prayer of St Patrick’s breastplate. I’ve been struck by this - as a not-very-often-hugger I’d find it strange but I love the idea - that God’s love enfolds us like a comfort blanket.
Right now I need some of that comfort blanket - it’s hard work with moving and everything and although I love all we are doing with #doyouknowHim? and it's really exciting, there are times that it has almost broken me (who’d co-lead on something so big whilst preparing to move?).
Yesterday was one of those days where one last kick sent me into hiding. I was packing, reminiscing, planning, dreaming and I reflected on some news I’d had that brought up some stuff that was tricky....
So this morning I began again, went back to my calling, went back to God with breakfast in the garden centre. And as I did I reflected on God as comfort blanket. As I did I reflected on the Bible and God threw out Matthew 11:28 in more ways than one.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest”
And so I wrote...... a kind of comfort blanket blessing for me and for all those I know who are finding it tough right now. It’s not easy at the moment with so much uncertainty and change so sometimes we just need to accept the blanket offered and rest:
God’s Comfort Blanket
May the arms of God surround you
With the fibres of His warmth
May His comfort blanket enfold you
As you shelter in His wings
May the strength of embrace protect you
As the fleece and wool surround you
May you feel His love, His peace
As you rest in His arms
May you gradually unravel
As the threads ravel round you
May you begin to let it go
And feel release in his grace.
May the arms of God surround you,
Protect you and enrobe you
May His comfort blanket soothe you
As you shelter in His wings
"I know you!"
Do you? What does it really mean to know someone? Walking down the road you see a familiar face, you say to the person next to you - "I know that person"....do you? You read an application form or a wikipedia page detailing the facts of somebody's life. You meet them and you know them.....Do you?
To know someone you need to spend time with them. You begin to find out the little things that make them tick. You know what irritates them and you do it all the more to get a reaction (no, nobody does that!??!).
One of my favourite Psalms talks of being known - being known by God. Psalm 139 talks of God who has searched me, examined me, excavated me, dug deep down into me. It talks of God who is endlessly fascinated by everything we do - God who cares enough to count the hairs on our heads, who collects our tears and understands each one. It talks of God who knows every single knot in our stomach when we are worried about something. It talks of God who knows how to undo the knots but also knows the knots we don't want to undo because we think it will hurt too much.
This is God who to whom nobody is anonymous, to whom nobody is a write off, who loses nobody in a crowd and who knows each person by name. God understands us in a way nobody can, not even those who know us best.
How wonderful it is that God knows me fully.
I love Psalm 139, but when I spent time in preparation for my sermon last Sunday I stopped and I thought for a moment.....
Is it not a bit creepy? The fact that God is there in everything. The fact that he sees everything? It's wonderful, but it's a little bit scary. It talks of God who hems us in, behind and before - which reassures but also constrains. God who besieges - surrounds us with a fortifying wall.
It sounds a bit like the over-controlling partner in a marriage who loves their partner deeply but wants to know too much. Or a bit like the parent who wants to let the child go, but can't and loves them so much they still want to be involved in every aspect of their life. It talks of a feeling of being smothered.
Or does it?
One of the arguments I have heard against the existence of God is one where people choose to believe that the God we worship is a dictator type God who looks down on his people, controls their movements and gives them no freedom. That argument speaks of the threat of this Psalm - of a God who controls. If we picture God like that we live in a shade of angry gloom - the idea of God becomes despicable. If we think of hemming in like being besieged in a medieval war where God is the evil besieger, then we are left in a struggling poverty where we feel threatened by him.
But.... that's not the God of Psalm 139. This is God who knows us intimately and wants to stand in the hemmed in city with us - he doesn't know us from afar, but knows us from within. He is not an over-looker, but is a factory worker fighting in the union for a peaceful yet justice ridden outcome (I love 'The Mill' - excellent Sunday night TV!). If we feel threatened by God who hems us in, we need to question whether we are seeing God as a God of dictatorship or God as a God of love, reaching out not in control, but deep love.
To see God as a God of love and not a dictator, creepy stalker or chaperone the best place to understand that deep love is on the cross - where instead of hemming us in a siege to control our every move, God sacrificed his only Son, Jesus Christ, so that we could be liberated - so that we might know God who builds a fortress to protect us, living in it with us, gathering our tears, cherishing our thoughts, knowing our deepest desires and knots.
Divine knowledge is far beyond any human knowledge, and divine presence is far beyond anything we can fathom. The Psalmist beautifully describes the depths of this love.
When we choose to accept that it is not a threat to be known by God, our life turns from one that is hemmed in by expectation where our view of God is a far off being controlling and dictating our every move to one that is stamped with the word 'free', with the word 'child of God' where there is no need to hide any more: all is accepted. You will be searched, but nothing will be found in you that hasn't already been embraced and loved. God formed us, made us who we are. He loves us, loves us just the way we are and sent his Son to die for us so that we might know him.
