God can see you …

Have you ever pulled up to a red light, only to observe a driver in a car next to you behaving as if no one could see him?

Maybe he was singing like a rock star, or she was putting on make-up, or the person was just acting silly … until they suddenly realized you were looking at them and they could be seen!

We humans can be in the midst of a mass of people and feel like no one is noticing us. But other people can see us.

Charles Taylor had an experience that ended wishing he hadn’t been noticed, according to this report from the Star-Tribune in Casper, Wyoming …

Charles Taylor was brought into the courtroom of Judge James Fleetwood. Taylor was accused of robbing a shoe store at knifepoint, taking a pair of tan hiking boots and $69. During the trial Taylor propped his feet up on the defense table. The judge looked over and did a double take. Taylor was wearing a pair of tan hiking boots. Surely, nobody would be so stupid as to wear the boots he stole to his trial, the judge thought.

Nevertheless, as the jury deliberated, the judge had an FBI agent call the shoe store. He learned that the stolen boots were size 10 ½ from Lot 1046. They checked the boots that Taylor wore to trial and found that they were size 10 ½ from Lot 1046.

The jury found Taylor guilty, and the judge sent him back to jail in his stocking feet.

Before you rush to think, “How stupid could a person be?!” take a moment to realize that, in our own ways, we behave the same way … in front of God! What we think we’ve hidden from everyone else — including what others can’t see, like our thoughts, our desires, our motives, our sin — is crystal clear before God …

“The Lord is watching everywhere, keeping his eye on both the evil and the good,” Proverbs 15:3.

“For the Lord sees clearly what a man does, examining every path he takes. An evil man is held captive by his own sins; they are ropes that catch and hold him. He will die for lack of self-control; he will be lost because of his great foolishness,” Proverbs 5:21-23.

“Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable,” Hebrews 4:13.

You don’t have to be as bold as Charles Taylor and prop up your sin before the Lord, He can see it even when you try to hide it. So how might it influence your thought life and your behavior if you live more consciously aware that God sees everything, everywhere, all the time?

Scotty