God Speaking

“O’ Lord, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him?” (Psalm 144:3)

When one of my daughters was young she was given a delightful little book that became not only her favourite, but one that the whole family loved to read and not only our family, when I was teaching grade 2 every child I ever read it to, loved it. It was called “I Don’t Care”. The story revolved around a little boy, Pierre, who answered every question with, “I don’t care!” Oh how the children would shout with me when I read , and Pierre said, “I DON’T CARE” Eventually , of course, his not caring catches up with him when a hungry lion comes to call and asks him , “May I eat you?” This time his. “I don’t care” lands him up inside the lion’s tummy, but of course it has a happy ending as his mother and father arrive in time to shake the lion upside down and out falls Pierre who is so glad to escape he cries loudly “ I care! “ (Even the lion cares and stays for dinner with the family) The last page has big letters proclaiming. The moral of this story is To Care.

We may ourselves sink into that same feeling of not caring when events overwhelm us or friends let us down or life deals us a heavy blow. We can use it as a protective cover for our broken dreams or broken hearts. Even as children we shout, “I don’t care” when our best friend says, “I don’t like you anymore.” We can hide behind this childish response when caring is going to mean a lot of involvement and hard work on our part. We can even stop caring about ourselves and begin to believe that we are not worth caring about anyway. We can even get to a point of asking, “Does God care?”

The word “care” can be used in two different ways.

A. Burdened, state of mind arising from fear, doubt, concern, anxiety.

B. To feel concern or take an interest about a situation or person, to feel protective of

When God was speaking to Moses and giving him the commandments we were all to live by, he also wanted all his people to know and understand the depth of his love for his created beings and told Moses to proclaim this;

“Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin…” (Exodus 34:5 – 7)

When we look at the two definitions about care, we see the second one, (B) to be an amazing response to the first one (A).

We may be trapped into the despair of not caring by fear, doubt anxiety, we may have been forced into thinking, “I don’t care” by circumstances we cannot control, by unkind acts of others, but the wonderful truth found in God’s word is that, “Yes he does care!”

David knew this state of being when he called out to God,

“..My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught.” (Psalm 55:2)

But look what he remembers;

“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.” (Psalm 55:22)

I love a lot of the modern choruses we sing now in our church services, but I miss some of the old hymns and this one, written over a hundred years ago, sums up caring

No matter what may be the test,

God will take care of you.

Lean, weary one upon his breast.

God will take care of you.

Related articles

• Psalm 117:2 NKJV – God’s merciful kindness (pagprayer.wordpress.com)
• The Big Picture (aquickeningray.com)