My daughter Lindsey is pretty hardy. She doesn’t get hurt easily—which is good, since she loves to try new physical skills. In fact, one day when she was not yet two, I had to remove her from the bathroom vanity twice and the kitchen counter five times. In the bathroom, she had climbed up on the potty and from there to the sink. To get onto the kitchen counter, she had pushed a dining room chair up next to it and climbed onto the chair, then onto the counter.
But on this particular day, she had hurt her toe.
I saw her crying, and I said something like, “You’re okay. Go wipe your nose.”
I was nice about it, but I knew she wasn’t really hurt. Lindsey thought otherwise. “My toe, my toe,” she repeated tearfully.
I looked at her toe. It looked fine to me. But looking at her tearful face, runny nose and all, I realized that she had really hurt herself, or at least believed that she had. Indestructible Lindsey was hurt.
“I’m sorry,” I said compassionately. “Now go wipe your nose.”
Lindsey got up and went willingly to get a Kleenex. I had given her what she needed. She was then able to move on.
I didn’t make her toe feel better, but I did make her heart feel better. You see, Lindsey didn’t need me to fix the situation; she needed to know that I cared.
Often, that’s the same thing we need from God.
Granted, there are times when we desperately want His help to fix a situation. But there are other times—many other times—when we can live with the situation if we just know He cares.
We live in a fallen world. All of us know that. We understand that that brings consequences—pain, sin, suffering, and even death. We know that not everything in life will go the way we desire, and for the most part, we have accepted that. We don’t rail against everything that happens to us, just the most painful things, if we rail at all. But even in the midst of a level of hardship we can accept, we want to know that God cares.
You see, that’s what helps us make it through—knowing that God cares about the details of our day-to-day existence.
When we come to Him and tell Him something hurts, we want to know that He cares. We don’t expect Him to fix everything, because we know that sometimes, in His infinite wisdom, He allows suffering. But just as Lindsey sought from me some evidence that I cared, so we seek from God the knowledge that He cares.
And we find it, again and again and again.
God cares more about us than we can possibly comprehend. He demonstrated His love and concern most blatantly when He watched His Son hang on a cross, dying. But He also shows His love every day, all day.
He provides the air that we need for each breath. He gives us shelter. He blesses us with family and friends. Not only that, He provides us comfort and strength any time we need it.
Any time, anywhere, God makes Himself available to us for comfort, wisdom, strength, or anything else we might need. Isn’t that incredible? The God of the entire universe is always, immediately available to respond to you. To me. If that doesn’t convince us that He cares, nothing will.
Friend, is there some area of your life today where you need to know that God cares? Could you make it through your circumstances if you just knew that He cared?
Go to Him. Tell Him that you need to know. Tell Him you need reassurance of His love and caring. He’s there, ready and waiting to give it to you, and He won’t condemn you for needing it.
It’s true that sometimes, God doesn’t make His presence as intensely felt as others. There may be times where He asks you to walk by faith, without the emotional experience you were hoping for. But even during those times, He will make His love and concern plain to you. He’s already done so throughout the pages of His Word, the Bible. He may use His Holy Spirit to speak to the needy places in your heart. He may use other people. Whatever the means, He will offer His comfort any time you need it. Why? Because He cares.
So go to Him. Tell Him what you need. And open your heart to receive the loving answer He will give.
1 Peter 5:7—Cast all your cares on him because he cares for you.