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You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
You perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
You are familiar with all my ways.
(Psalm 139:1-3)

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In these days of drifting through the summer of COVID-19, we may find ourselves a bit lost and lonely.\xa0 Knocked out of the rhythms that ground us, out of the relationships that enliven us, and forced to take ways unfamiliar to us.\xa0

For some, it has raised our anxiety.\xa0 Heightened our loneliness and sadness.\xa0 Stirred up our fears.\xa0

Partly, that is because we have lost places of community where we are known.\xa0 Gathering with other people for school stopped abruptly.\xa0 Gathering with people for work disappeared initially and has changed now in many places even where work goes on.\xa0 Gathering weekly for worship with our church family disappeared too. \xa0And all our weekly activities of groceries and appointments are a bit more cold and distant now too as our faces and expressions become hidden behind mandatory masks.\xa0

In these days: it is harder to know others, and it is harder to be known by them.\xa0 We don\u2019t have as many places to meet, and when we do meet them much of what aids the art of knowing is hidden and restricted.\xa0 No hugs.\xa0 No hand shakes.\xa0 No close proximity.\xa0 No smiles visible to communicate warmth or joy.\xa0 It\u2019s hard soil for growing relationships of knowing and being known in.

And yet, God continues to chime in: \u201cI still know you!\u201d\xa0 \u201cEven though your ways are new and unfamiliar, I still know them!\u201d\xa0 \u201cEven though your rhythms have changed, I have not changed\u2014you still belong in body and soul, in life and in death, to me.\u201d\xa0

So much of our world has changed and grown colder as we are removed from our rhythms and relationships and things so simple as exchanging a smile on the way.\xa0 Our world is masked, digitally mediated, and to many of us, unfamiliar.\xa0

But God still searches us out, no matter where we are.\xa0 No matter how lost or alone we feel.\xa0 No matter the anxieties we face.\xa0 You may feel increasingly unknown in a world without community, but the Lord knows you.\xa0 You ways may feel scattered and unfamiliar these days, but these wilderness ways you wander are known and familiar to God.

He remains the God who is familiar with all your ways.\xa0 The God who knows you, who loves you, you meets you on the journey, and who continues to remind you, even though devotionals like these, that you belong to Him.