My neighbor, who has a touch for gardening, worked hard
planting a delightful variety of flowers. They were a beautiful sight to
behold!
The flower garden, it turns out, was also a deer buffet. One
morning about half a dozen deer showed up and enjoyed themselves devouring the
buffet! I don't doubt that my neighbor would have preferred the deer
"longed for streams of water" rather than her flowers.
In this psalm King David complains about his exile and his
distance from God's temple. In other words, he can't go to church. His soul
longs for the renewal of God's presence because God felt distant, remote,
absent. He asks if God has forgotten him and he wants to know where he can go
to meet God. People are asking him, "Where is your God?"
In times when we don’t go to church, or church is virtual,
or seats are limited, we may experience the same longing in our souls. God can
feel distant, remote or absent. It can feel as though everything about our
faith is shrinking. If so, our tendency is to be discouraged and to start to
think God is not involved anymore. That God’s kind of left town. It's easy to
ask, in our journey of 2020 “Where is God?" In the pandemic, the economy,
the hatred, violence, the campaign, “Where is God?”
For me, just as the deer longs for streams of water, so my
soul longs for God, for returning to church. My soul longs for the presence of
the family of God, hearing the Word and sharing at the Table, this is the
longing of my soul
But I know God is a living God. God is concerned about our
life and world today.
That's why I hope in God.
That's why I wait for God.
That's why I know God lives, hears, and answers us.
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