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This photo is a macro photo of wood chipped for the pulping process. It is how we are to grope for God…examining every minute detail.

I imagine a small child in the middle of the night,

alone,

frightened,

crying out,

reaching into the dark.

Hoping someone will meet his searching hands.

An insistent cry.

A wail.

Beseeching someone to come to his rescue.

 ***

Do we grope for God with such insistency?

As though everything within us depends on finding Him?

I love words so I looked up synonyms for the word “grope” to gain more insight into what it means to grope for God.

Search/Hunt/Seek–When a hiker is lost in the Rocky Mountains, the search and rescue teams don’t just run out and start looking. They lead with intention and strategy. They coordinate their methodical efforts. They also don’t just drop into any area of the Rockies; instead, they research the hiker’s last-known movements and start there. This is what it is to search for God.

Delve/Pry/Probe/Scour–These aren’t words I use often, but they mean to carry on intensive and thorough research. I love cross references in my Bible with verses that lead me deeper and deeper into God’s Word. This is part of delving.

Examine/Study–My daughter, Abby, who is in PA school is learning to do an hour-long patient intake to better examine a patient and understand how medical and social history might be contributing to the patient’s symptoms. This is how cultural context and how God has moved in the past matter today as we grope for God.

Go after/Chase after–What’s the last thing you chased after? A good buy online? A research fact? A child? A love interest? Groping for God is active, intentional pursuit.

Investigate/Explore/Question–Like a detective, we follow every lead and track down every clue to find God.

Sift/Forage–When we sift something, we’re separating the unusable parts from the usable. Like a gold miner who pans for gold, we sift away everything but the treasure of knowing God. When we forage for food, we hunt for the things that’ll nourish us.

Quest–In medieval romance, this was an adventurous expedition undertaken by a knight or knights to secure or achieve something. We quest for God.

There’s so much to think about here…digging deeply into every aspect of our amazing God…relentless pursuit…leaving no stone unturned.

And the opposite of grope? Leave alone!

Are we doing life by leaving God alone, leaving Him out, abandoning Him? Or are we groping for God?

May this be the year that we grope for God!