Out Of Sight; Not Out Of Mind

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ut of sight, out of mind is an old cliché I have heard all my life and one that I practiced regularly as a kid.  I used the space underneath my bed as storage for all my “important stuff.”  Whenever I needed to store something or get rid of something, under the bed it went.  When all that space was taken, I began using the available space in my closet. 

When my mom could no longer tolerate my clutter, she would simply announce it was time to clean out from under the bed.  I had to get down on my hands and knees, drag out all that “important stuff” and then throw it away.  I found things long forgotten, things I intended to use again but never did.  It took my hours sometimes to clean it all out and I wondered what had ever possessed me to stuff things under my bed in the first place.

Sometimes we feel that God has just stuffed us under the bed and forgotten all about us.  We keep praying, we keep reading the Bible, we keep on believing his promises but it feels like he has totally forgotten us.  Our lives seem so cluttered and filled with all kinds of challenges and difficulties and God is nowhere to be found.

This is exactly the way Mary and Martha must have felt when they sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was sick.  They expected him to come right away, to perform a miracle, and to restore Lazarus to perfect health.  However, things didn’t turn out exactly the way they planned. 

John 11:6  gives us Jesus’ initial reaction to the news of Lazarus’ illness, “Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.”  Unbelievable!  One of Jesus closest and dearest friends is sick and when he learns about it he does nothing.  He stays two more days where he is.

This does seem like Jesus has placed them underneath the bed, stored them away, forgotten all about them.  Both Martha and Mary express this to Jesus when he arrives, telling him that Lazarus would not have died if he had come on time.  In other words, Mary and Martha are saying, “If you hadn’t forgotten our request, if you hadn’t put us out of mind, Lazarus would still be alive.”

All of us have shared Martha and Mary’s feelings.  All of us have had moments when we felt God had left us alone to fend for ourselves.  But the truth is, we are never out of his sight and we are never out of his mind.  His thoughts are always toward us and he always knows where we are.  We cannot hide from him, we cannot be separated from him, if he knows when sparrows fall, he knows everything that concerns you and me today.

When confronted with Mary and Martha’s concerns, Jesus simply told them to believe and all would be well.  He raised Lazarus that day and restored him to his friends and family.  Mary and Martha felt as if Jesus had forgotten them.  They felt alone and helpless and wondered why he didn’t come when they called.  But Jesus had something far greater in mind and in store for theses sisters, something they could never imagine or hope would happen.

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oday, whatever your situation, rest assured God has not forgotten you. He is not in the business of sweeping you under the rug or storing you underneath the bed.  He knows all about you and he is aware of everything that touches your life.  He is constantly working on your behalf and his timing is always perfect.  At times God may be out of your sight, but you are never out of his mind!