God Sees Everything

Like almost every other family with small children, I have a rather well-decorated refrigerator. It’s where we keep the most impressive, or at least the most recent, of my children’s creations. There is also a large basket, strategically placed under a rather tall dining room chair, constantly overflowing with whatever is not on the fridge. Between worksheets, crafts, coloring pages, and homemade cards, this self-perpetuating pile continues to grow despite my best efforts to strategically (read: secretly) dispose of at least some of it at the bottom of the recycling bin.

I know many parents will be able to relate when I share that I recently got caught by my eldest. He is the childhood embodiment of an elderly statesman, committed to justice and righteousness at all times.

This is how it all went down:

[Eldest child enters the garage, gasps,] “Mom! My stuff is in here! And there is some of Charlotte’s stuff too! WHY would you throw our stuff AWAY? These things are PRECIOUS to us!” [Cue crying from the statesman and the innocent, who are both now wounded to the depths of their souls.]

Oy vey. Their collective grief was so strong and his tone so indignant that I admit, I didn’t handle myself with the highest integrity. If I remember correctly, I stammered out something about having put it in there by accident, or I didn’t realize it was an important paper, or with some other parental backpedaling of the kind we are prone to in these moments. I grabbed the papers back out of the recycle bin, walked them slowly into the house, and put them right back under that tall chair in the overflowing basket where they had been only a few hours before.

Later that evening, as I shared the debacle with my husband, I was attempting to figure out how to lovingly but firmly let my children know that while I appreciate their work, it is actual insanity to keep everything that matters to them. No matter how much I love them, there is no way as a parent to fully embrace every mark of growth and creativity in the limited space and capacity we are given.

And then this beautiful thought emerged.

God can. And he does.

God sees everything.

In the hustle and bustle of being an adult, we sometimes forget to allow ourselves the gift of time to be a child again. I don’t care if you are thirty-five or eighty-five, every one of us is forever God’s child. And because we serve an omnipresent and omnipotent God, he is constantly in touch with everything we are doing―and he can celebrate it without limitation! Everything we do, every seemingly insignificant step of progress or celebration we encounter, is picked up and stuck on what I imagine to be the biggest refrigerator of all time. God never has to put anything in the basket under the chair.

You, dear child of God, are seen. He does not have to pick and choose as we do. There is no limit to what God sees and no boundaries on his love. He can, and does, pay attention to everything from your first breath to your last. He has lovingly taken note of every single moment of your life―and it is his deep pleasure to record it all.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:13-16 NIV).

Your earliest confession of faith, your toothless grin from elementary school, the prayer you poured out from heartache, the celebration of your first job, your first child, your victory over a stronghold―it’s all there. While everything we do and have on this earth will one day pass away, the experience we have with the Lord will never fade. And when we pass from this life to the next, we will get to see and know how closely he kept watch over us.

If God has a fridge, you can bet your work is on it. After all, he’s an expert in saving stuff.

Anne Rulo is an author, speaker, professional counselor, marriage and family therapist and veteran coach’s wife. She and her husband Tim have two children and are passionate about reaching people for Christ and sharing information on coaching, marriage, family, and mental health. Read more from Anne at www.annerulo.com.

Photograph © Squared, used with permission