Exposed to the Son

6:30 p.m. Today's project was to check up on a few things: whether my son Steven got home from a San Jose bodybuilding event (he did, having placed 3rd in the Open Men's Heavyweight class, the youngest and only natural competitor); keep looking for Heidi and Pavel's toasting flutes; and see whether my recently uncovered watermelon mound was progressing.

The location of the flutes is still hidden from us all, so I've sent an email to the caterer and will contact everyone who helped us clean up after the wedding. They will turn up, I am sure, just a matter of God revealing to me whom to ask and where to look. I Corinthians 4:5 tells us that we can rely upon God to bring hidden things to light, so I'll stay cool!

The passage above refers to the day when Jesus will reveal and judge the counsels of each person's heart. But He is 100% familiar with the contents of our hearts this very moment, whether we try to hide the darker elements or not. Hebrews 4:12-13 says of God's revelatory word,

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to Him to whom we must give account.

I remember reading this passage as a new believer and feeling a chill go up my spine, probably because it tied in so well with my mother's admonitions to my sister and me that "God sees everything! He even knows what you're thinking!" Since I was not saved until 1980 when I was 28 years old, that always seemed scary. But even as I fall more in love with the Lord each day, there is an awesome, reverent, healthy fear of the Lord that should never, ever leave even the most experienced and mature saint! Because God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent!

Back to the watermelon mound. I had noticed that the seeds never germinated, even with the hot, sunny days, sand and compost mixed into the soil and the same amount of water their neighboring cantaloupe plants get, which are now spreading and flourishing. Yesterday Steve and I were out weeding, watering and generally straightening up the garden. I pocketed some nice-sized tomatillos as I was hoeing out the irrigation ditches at the back end of the plot, when the cause of the watermelon non-starters suddenly dawned on me. The huge tomatillo bushes had completely overgrown the watermelon mound, hogging all the sunlight and probably a good amount of the water, too. No wonder they didn't stand a chance, despite all of the nutritive help they'd been given!

They were not exposed to the sun.

As for us human beings, if we fear God's judgment and wish we could hide our motives from Him, no amount of "amendments" of fun, success or even staying on the down-low will help. We need to be exposed to the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ the Son, and ask Him to forgive our sins, accept His death on the cross as all-sufficient to save us from a living death today and eternal death in hell. There is no other way to truly live, grow and thrive in this life, and in the life to come.

We need Son-exposure!