“God already knows every deep thing within us—even those things too deep for our own conscious minds to retrieve—yet he searches us anyway. His Spirit seeks though he knows what he will find. He is neither bored nor uninterested. His omniscience does not distract from his discovery.” –Beth Moore, Align:  31 Days of Prayer, Day 31 (emphasis mine)

Have you ever considered that God has moments of awe about you?

Yes, God is omniscient which means he knows everything. Yet he searches us anyway…and is awed.

Psalm 139 tells us, v. 23, Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.

Everything prior to that verse in Psalm 139 is God being amazed about you. It’s about his continual presence with you and such things as wonderfully complex, marvelous, woven together…in the dark. This matches that wonderful truth about how even in the darkness God is there. This continues to comfort me.

This led to a wonderful conversation at my church. (This is what we do as our expression of church.) Someone bravely asked, “Is God only in awe of us when we are Christians, or is he in awe of us because we are made in his image? Is God in awe of the 1 sheep who ran away as well as the other 99?”

There was some conversation added to this and then I said,

“I think God is awed by the one sheep which is why he pursues with love and grace. Not shame. Awe doesn’t have space for shame.”

Awe doesn’t have space for shame.

God does not use shame to pursue us.

God is not insecure that he needs to use shame to “power over” us to call us back.

You may think God does use shame because you struggle with shame. You feel responsible in your ruminating of all of the bad things you’ve done as well as your bad decisions. Shame feels responsible.

Or you have a view of a judgey God who uses shame to keep you in line.

Meanwhile, God never uses shame to pursue us. You can’t find it in the Bible.

Let’s begin with the verse after John 3:16. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:17. Not to judge you but to save you. This pursuit is full of love because God desires for you to be saved, see John 3:16.

In 1 John 1: 9, But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. I don’t see shame in there at all. I see God doing a whole lot: being faithful, forgiving, cleansing. Nope, no shaming.

Even in that parable of the one lost sheep. We think that Jesus begrudgingly leaves the 99 with an exasperation about this one (you) who just can’t get it right. Then you are found and picked up and placed onto the shoulders of the Savior Shepherd (you saw this in a painting because it comes right out of the Bible) but that only means you got to hear even more clearer the grumbling he was doing under his breath at the extra work that had to be done to pursue you and leave the good 99. You believe you are a continual disappointment.

Where did that false story come from? That’s not in the Bible. So ponder, where did that false story come from?

When you were on those shoulders being returned, and if you could have read the Savior Shepherd’s mind, you would have realized he was planning to throw a party for you. (Luke 15:6). You were pursued, as lost as you were, and now you get a party.

There is no shame.

Perhaps there is even some awe…about you.

We are all born into this world looking to be found. You are being pursued to be found and given a place. Your body, your soul, your mind has a place to be found.

But you belong to God, my dear children. 1 John 4:4.

Psalm 139 ends with this verse, v. 24 – Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Do you see God using shame to point out what is wrong with you? Or do you now see the loving pursuit? And now see God leading you (which means to be near you) on a better path?

The nearer God gets to you, the more awe he feels towards you.