My friend Joyce has sent me another bird tweet with a quotation from one of my very favourite Psalms – Psalm 139, often known as ‘The Hound of Heaven’

Joyce writes this:

Dear Friends,
This White Stork was a surprise visitor on Hall Marsh scrape for just a very short while.
I suspect it’s satnav then re-calibrated and it flew back to mainland Europe.
Whatever the case, our Creator God watches over it and us, wherever we are.
With my love and prayers, God bless Joyce

Psalm 139 is one in which God’s care for us is celebrated but also which has an acknowledgement that there is no getting away from God who knows us through and through.
We can’t hide from Him, no matter where we try to go.
Why should we want to?

Well, we sometimes find it difficult to cope with someone who knows us, seemingly, better than we know ourselves. Sometimes God’s attention is unwanted.

In the film Amazing Grace (2006) about the great campaigner against Slavery William Wilberforce , there is a scene where Wilberforce (played by Ioan Gruffudd) leaves the house, his mind and heart in turmoil.
He knows what he is being called to do but it seems so difficult to do it. As he lay on the grass it begins to rain. His butler rushes to him with an umbrella and is perplexed at the state Wilberforce is in.
“Have you found God, sir?” he asks.
“Found God!!”, he replies. “No, He’s found me” and then he adds, “Do you know how inconvenient that can be!.

Well, yes. I think more than a few might agree with that!

Psalm 139 certainly played a big part in my own discovery of what God wanted from me.
But in that process He also showed me how dedicated and committed He is to me. To us.
He beckons us to Him because He so deeply loves us and that is just wonderful, as I’m sure the White Stork discovered.

We hope you do too.

[Joyce Smith & Mr G]

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