“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24 ESV)

When I was a teacher I used to make up word-searches for students. So, when doing one I look with a keen eye to find the words, and also to see if there were any unintentional mistakes. These can be anything that makes it impossible to successfully complete the task! I become a Mister Picky! For a successful outcome requires patience, concentration and a careful eye for the task.

Per chance I checked a word search sent to me recently. So with this past history above, I went into the storehouse of my brain, brought out the Mister Picky persona and went to check through the list of words.

As I looked for a particular word, my brain stopped seeing the matrix as just a mass of hickaldy-pickaldy letters and switched into search mode looking for groups of words in a consecutive order, up, down, left-to-right, right-to-left and diagonally sifting for clues. Some words are easy to find because a letter contained in it is a lesser utilized consonant. So I scan to look for the letter or group associated characters (e.g. q, w, x, y or z etc.).

From within the superficial chaos of the letter matrix I found order, and soon the completion of my search. Too much information, I hear you say – well maybe, but it made me think.

Many of us read The Word but we do not seem to achieve the originator’s intended goal. We see the words but somehow we miss the revelation of God contained there in. We understand and rush through the facts but we do not connect to the God who is the instigator of all things. Maybe today might be a good time to redo our quiet times, just in case we missed a hidden word?

PRAYER: Dear LORD, thank You for being so patient with us, as we rush into Your presence, then out, and off again into the world. Thanks LORD for Your gift of Grace, otherwise we would have no means of meeting with You our Saviour. LORD, if it is important to You, we want to hear it, so please give us a second chance and send Your Holy Spirit to speak into our lives today through, and because of, the blood of Jesus, Amen.

Rod Marshall