Look at me. 

That’s what I said to Bandit the dog as we strolled past a fenced in yard with an excited yellow Lab racing up and down the fence line barking.  Although Bandit and I remained in forward motion, his neck seemed suddenly made of rubber as he kept bending around to look at the Lab.  Over and over I said, “Look at me Bandit,” and over and over he kept looking at the barking dog.

Look at me.

That is what God says to me, when I get excited about other human beings running up and down the fence line of my life barking. God walks beside me and yet so often it seems as though I look straight through him  by turning to look at the people in the world around me.  I am so busy rubbernecking other human behavior  I forget to focus my attention on my Master.  Truth is,  I spend more time staring at people or some sort of electronic or print unreality than at Him who IS reality. He is ready to save, guide, direct, comfort and strengthen me only to the degree I am willing to look to him and acknowledge and accept these gifts from him. Most days I am too busy scrolling through my life to barely notice or acknowledge  his presence. The sad truth is far too many times he is the last thing I look to instead of the first.  I am shocked at how easily distracted I can become.

Seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added to you reads easy and lives hard unless I make a concerted effort to practice this principal in my life by looking to God to see just what his kingdom is.  My  distracted attention can be exacerbated by the false reality of our world found in social media, cinema, print or TV news and  drama. (Is there a difference I ask ?) Which all deceive me into believing the answers I am seeking to the hard questions in life lay outside of me instead of inside where Jesus tells me the Kingdom of God is found.  Of course, if I am not following Jesus, the world outside with all its running and barking would be where I would, and did and sometimes still do, direct my gaze.

When I look at Him, my soul remembers that when I see another human being I don’t see a person of a particular gender, or ethnicity or political persuasion.  What I see is someone else who is also created in the image of God.  What I find every time is reality based in truth, rooted in love.

Look at me! shouts the world.

Look at Me, whispers God.

Be joy filled always,

Christine Davis