Modern science is a bit of a two-edged sword. Wonderful in some ways and worrisome in others.  Sometime ago because of a bum shoulder, I had to do an x-ray and an ultrasound. As I sat during the latter, I watched on the screen with much interest what the ultrasound was showing.  Several months before that I had done another procedure and watched in amazement my beating heart. Science and technology allow the medical professional to see some things that are not possible to see with the naked eye and that is a good thing. Doctors need to know what is physically wrong in order to facilitate the process of fixing it. And therein lies the rub because they cannot see everything.

As I looked at the monitors during the procedures, it occurred to me that the marvels of medicine could not reveal what was emotionally or spiritually wrong.  A beating heart could be seen on a screen but a “heart” that is emotionally bruised, “broken”, or spiritually depraved would and could not show up on an x-ray or an ultrasound. Often times the emotional pain we feel is just as intense as physical pain. We shed what seems like buckets of tears because of the hurt we feel; hurt that no painkillers, prescribed or otherwise, can alleviate. However, where clinical professionals fail, it is good to know that we have One who never fails in any area. Everything pertaining to us is open before His eyes.

These thoughts came to mind as I reflected on the words of Jeremiah, “O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous, who sees the mind and the heart” (Jeremiah 20:12, NASB). In the New Testament the apostle Peter affirmed, “And God, who knows the heart…” (Acts 15:8).  In Romans 8:27 Paul writes, “And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”  It simply means that when we are hurting in places that others cannot see, we can rest assured that God sees and knows.

This realization should enable us to be transparent before Him. There is nothing we can tell Him that He doesn’t already know. Even if we do not tell Him, He still knows. Author and minister J. Charles Stern was right when he said, “There is nothing around the corner which is beyond God’s view.”  It is comforting to know that we can come to Him and trust Him with our hurts, our brokenness, and our tears.  In fact, tears are a language that He fully understands and He is the only one qualified to heal “the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). All because no matter how deep the wound or intense the hurt, He sees it all; something that modern medicine cannot do. We serve an amazing God!