The Secret Garden Chronicles-Day 11-Seeking God's Face

When I sat down in the Secret Garden today,  my first thought was to look at the "Be Still and Know that I Am God" sign that my son posted in the garden for me..and as I gazed upon it, I prayed:

"Lord, help me to do just that--to be still--to focus 

my thoughts totally on You,

and not on anything else."

And then this little bird flew up into the treetop above me, and he caught my attention because I didn't recognize what kind of bird he was.  All I could see was that he was tiny and had a brown head and light underbelly.  I tried to focus my camera on him, but it wouldn't come in clearly...possibly because of the leaves moving in the breeze all around it, or also because the bird kept moving from one tiny branch to another...

So in my frustration I said something out loud, like, "Why can't you be still so I can see you?  Okay, I guess you don't want me to take your picture today!" and with that, I turned off my camera and tried to re-focus my thoughts on the Lord, and what He would say to me today.

I opened my Bible, and it fell open to Psalm 27, probably because that is where my marker was from this morning's devotions.

And my eyes went directly to verses 7-10.  

7.  "Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice!

Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.

8.  When You said, "Seek My face," 

my heart said to You,

"Your face, Lord, I will seek."

9.  Do not hide Your face from me;

Do not turn Your servant away in anger;

You have been my help;

Do not leave me nor forsake me,

O God of my salvation.

10.  When my father and my mother forsake me,

then the Lord will take care of me."

And I thought to myself, "That sounds like me trying to see the face of that little bird a few minutes ago!"  How often do we cry out to the Lord, and even beg Him, "Listen to me!  Hear my voice when I cry out to You!"

It also reminded me that apparently I was having a bad dream last night, and my husband had to wake me up because I was crying out in my sleep.  I'm not sure what that was all about...I vaguely remember that something or someone was making me upset and afraid, and I started to cry out...one of those anxiety dreams that happen when we aren't even consciously aware that we are anxious about anything, but our subconscious knows and we cry out-- to GOD for help!!

Anyway, the Lord responds to our cries...even those that come from somewhere deep within us that we dare not express outwardly...and He says, lovingly and tenderly, "Seek My face."  

And we look up again with our whole heart and mind and say, sometimes with tears streaming down our face, 

"Your face, Lord, I will seek."

About this time, as I was reading this passage, I looked up, and that little bird had flown up to the tip-top of a dead tree, 

and perched there for all the world to see.  It was as if he was saying,

"Here I am! 

You said you wanted to see me more clearly?

Here I am...

focus in on me now!

Take a good look!"

And I thought about the Lord, and how often we get frustrated because we can't quite see Him or hear His voice, and it is because there is so much of the world in the way...the noise of the crowds, and the debris of too many conflicts, anxieties and just junk, causing our view of Him to become out of focus.  But when we seek His face alone...we find that He is right there in plain view, waiting for us to zoom our lens of faith and trust onto His glorious face.

"I would have lost heart, 

unless I had believed that I would see 

the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  

Wait on the Lord;

Be of good courage,

and He shall strengthen your heart;

Wait, I say, on the Lord!"

Psalm 27:13-14

Sometimes we just need to learn to WAIT on the Lord,

and stay tuned in to His Voice and His Face, 

because He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. 

"Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

And see if there is any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting."

Psalm 139:23-24

Amen.