“He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber…” (Psalm 121:3)
The idea of always being awake is awful. Especially when we’re tired! But that’s because we need rest. We’re designed to depend on it. God is not.
God can watch over us perfectly because God never needs to close His eyes. There’s nothing even to tempt Him to blink. He doesn’t have limits like us. He can perpetually watch over us without the need of a break – or of something more interesting to do!
Imagine if we had to watch someone live their life, every moment of it. We get bored living our own ordinary lives – how much more boring it would be to watch someone else!
But God is actually interested in everything we do as He watches over us. He cares for us, down to every detail of our lives. In other Psalms, we see God bottles every tear we cry, counts every hair on our heads, and knows our every thought. That is diligent attention and true affection.
Our Lord is so invested in the details of our hearts and lives that He was willing to become a human. Jesus chose to be born as a baby, to grow, learn, and experience all the awkward and dull parts of being a human. He knows how it feels to be woken up by other’s worries, to mediate foolish arguments among loved ones, to navigate traffic jams (though they were made up of people, not cars), to reach out for a snack and find the cupboard is empty (or the fig tree, as it were.)
May we rest in knowing that the God who is watching over us, always awake, is willing to endure dreariness and dumb frustrations out of love for us.
What boring bit of your life are you grateful God still cares for you in?
Find the whole series at this link. If you’d like to download a PDF of these devotions, just let me know here and I’ll email it to you! I’ll also post each one on Instagram.