Bla Bla Blog!

As people always seem to say on their new blogs, "everyone else is doing it, so I am, too!" or words to that effect. Sometimes just for fun I hit the "next blog" button on my blog (with parental controls in place) just to go to random blogs, and it seems like everyone IS doing it! I'm fascinated by how smart, beautiful, funny, talented, unique, and (sometimes) "not from around here" people are.

("Not from around here" is a euphemism my friend and coworker Beverly and I put into use. Whenever we'd get a new doctor at the hospital we'd ask, "how's his [or her] dictation?" If a thick accent was involved we'd simply say, "Well, he's not from around here.")

I know God knows and loves every single person on Blogger. And beyond. (I love the line from one of my favorite movies, "Galaxy Quest": "To infinity, and beyond!") It's kind of staggering to consider.

Like prayer. The question, "How can God hear everyone's prayer at once?" used to be a real stumper for me. I can remember making the choice not to pray many times because I didn't want to "bother" God with yet one more prayer. I think that may still be an issue for some, and another example of how we limit an infinite God with our finite thinking.

Philip Yancey says, "A God unbound by our rules of time has the ability to invest in every person on earth. God has, quite literally, all the time in the world for each one of us. The psalmist exclaimed that 'a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by,' and the reverse also applies: to God, one day is like a thousand years. The common question, 'How can God listen to millions of prayers at once?' betrays an inability to think outside time. I cannot imagine a being who can hear billions of prayers in thousands of languages because I am stunted by my humanity. Trapped in time, I cannot conceive of infinity. The distance between God and humanity -- a distance that no one can grasp -- is, ironically, what allows intimacy."

I so love that. All the time in the world. For me. For you!