God Cares About Your Reading Life

I couldn't find one of my clients last week. The prison system lost her. 

I've learned that the prison system does what it wants when it wants. It waits and waits and waits and then all of sudden, acts without compassion. The stories I could tell you. But usually when someone is transferred in the system, you can look it up in the next day or two. Usually. 

But this time, I couldn't find her. Her name wasn't showing up in the system anymore. I couldn't schedule a virtual visit with her. I wrote her a letter and it was returned to me with the words "Unknown Person" written on the envelope. I hadn't received any phone calls from her. We made a few calls to the detention center and received confirmation she wasn't there. I was starting to worry. But where was she? How was I going to find her?

I started googling anything I could find about the detention center downtown. And after several articles, I found a few sentences halfway down the page that said there were overcrowding and safety concerns and as a result, there were sudden transfers to another small local detention center several towns away. Out of the 400 people who were moved, there was room for 15 at this one detention center. I went on that website and looked up her name and there she was. One of the 15. 

I immediately wrote her a letter and stuck it in the mail. I FOUND YOU. I was looking for you everywhere and I finally found you!

I found her. 

One of the things that has been speaking to my soul lately is something I've been learning in church. Throughout the month of December, we focused on four core fears that we all have as people. 

1. We fear we are not going to be heard by God. God, do you hear me? 

2. We fear we are not going to seen. Do you see me, God? 

3. We fear God is not at work. Is God really working in my life? 

4. We fear no one or nothing good is coming for us. Is anyone good looking for me? Is anything good coming?

The beauty is that the essence of the story of Christmas speaks to all of these fears. God saw you. God heard you. God is working for good. God came looking for you. And as Eugene Peterson writes in his book "A Long Obedience in the Same Direction," "There is no reason to suppose that God will arbitrarily change His way of working with us. What we have known of Him, we will know of Him."

I'm so relieved by this. I'm so grateful for this. This changes everything. 

One of my dear friends (and fellow avid reader) was sharing via Marco Polo the other day about how she finished a book she was reading one morning and then that same afternoon, a book she'd had on hold for four months at the library became available. She said to her husband, "isn't that a cool coincidence!?" And her husband replied, "I think God cares about your reading life." 

I imagine God would go to great lengths to find you if you were lost in the prison system if He didn't already always know where you were. I imagine God cares deeply about the things that bring you joy - about the books you're reading and the things you're learning and the friends you're making. I'm believing that God sees your exact circumstance and He hears you and He knows you and He actively and abundantly cares. He pursues you when you're lost. He delights in you because He created you.

This is the kind of hope I'm walking into 2022 with.