My friend’s daughter is a member of the University of Massachusetts’ marching band. Their performances are phenomenal, wow-factor-producing events. This year they will have the honor of marching in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. What a great opportunity! I’ve only seen this parade on TV but my assumption is it is difficult to maneuver through the crowds, it’s very loud, and my senses would be overwhelmed.
Parades remind me of a sermon in which the preacher likened God’s view of our lives to that of watching a long parade from a 15th-floor balcony. As we stand on that baloney over the parade and turn our heads right, we see the front of the parade that has passed by. Looking straight down we see the middle of the procession. Turning left, we can the end, the parade caboose you might say. What we miss from our high-rise vantage point though, are the details such as the facial expressions of the marching band members and the food smells from the vendor’s street carts. The parade sounds rise up to our balcony in a cacophony of sound unharmoniously joined together.
In the parade analogy, God sees our lives from beginning to end, and everything in between. Unlike our limited parade experience, God’s view and knowledge of each detail are unlimited. He knows the particulars, down to the number of hairs are on each person’s head. He hears heartbeats and thoughts. He knows what each person has overcome and what lies ahead. To Him, the world isn’t a cacophonous sound; his ears are fine-tuned to each of us.
Isn’t it amazing? Whether we’re praying bedside or in the middle of a loud parade, our omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God can decipher our distinct voices among the crowd. When we need reassurance can ask, “God, you’ve got this, right?” When turbulence shakes our lives, making us feel small, vulnerable, and afraid, we cry out, “Where are you in my situation, God?” And He hears. He sees. And He is with us.
Recently I asked Him, “Why? Why did you need to take a truly good, thoughtful, funny, kind, Jesus-loving, Gospel-teaching person in such an ugly, cancerous way? Don’t you want the teachers of Your Word here at ground level where we need them?”
God reminded me of two important things. First, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts … and my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine” (Isaiah 55:8 NLT). Second, Jesus, my beloved Son, who, as you’ll recall, was also truly good, thoughtful, compassionate, and teaching the Way – died in an ugly crucifixion way. For you.
Friends, here’s where I need to insert the mind-blown emoji. Message received. God has his reasons and we aren’t privy to all the details. He knows everything from beginning to end, from the start of our parade to the finish.
While we may not understand the reasons, there are life lessons that we can glean. One such lesson for me came from my [former] boss, Rich the pastor who I had asked God about. One day we were discussing the distribution of grocery store gift cards that the church provides to folks in need. Rich explained that we won’t always know if each recipient is going to buy groceries with their card or sell it for drug money. “I like to err on the side of compassion,” he said matter-of-factly.
His words seeped into my heart. The Holy Spirit began showing me how an untrusting heart can lead us to make assumptions to stereotype or be unforgiving. God has great compassion toward us. In Exodus 34:6-7, God uses the word compassionate to describe his character. In Lamentations 3:22-23 the prophet Jeremiah wrote “…for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning.”
Erring on the side of compassion was so ‘Rich’ for he typically displayed more rather than less – more mercy, more kindness, more compassion. The Hebrew word for compassion is ‘rachum,’ meaning to actively show compassion. It’s a verb, something we do. We are called to be compassionate, offering a caring response to someone else’s distress.
Rich’s words are now posted on my office wall as a constant reminder of the compassion Jesus taught through his actions and words. We can’t see the entire parade no matter where we stand. We can leave the details to God as we go along the portion of the path that he illuminates for us. It is a path that often requires compassion, empathy, sympathy, and mercy.