In God we boast all day long, And praise Your name forever. Psalm 44:8

Growing up, my Dad had a practice of reminding us that though he didn’t know everything, he knew there were things to know.

He would often give one of us a little slap on the rear as we walked by him and say, “That’s for the stuff I don’t know about.” It was disconcerting to think that he knew there were things for which we needed to be punished.  As an adult it has caused me to think about what I don’t know about.

It’s easy for most of us to praise God because “His mercies are new every morning” and “He is our refuge and strength.” These are great praises. But, what about praising God for the things we don’t know about?

Though my Heavenly Father knows all the details of that which my earthly father could only guess (and He lets me live anyway), I do not have a clear picture of what He is doing. What I know is that because of His character He has done plenty to protect and provide for us that we have not seen. We don’t know exactly what those things are, but we know that He has been at work in the background – in the heavenly realm.

Paul tells us that nothing can separate God’s children from the love of Christ. In Romans 8:38-39 he says, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

There is a spiritual war going on all the time. At first it’s for our souls. Satan hates for people to come to faith in Christ. He would rather they would be lost in Hell for eternity. When God delivered us from him and saved us, we became a target for Satan’s temptations (and our own desires) to make us ineffective. Satan would like to keep us from knowing God well or building His Kingdom on earth.

But these verses would also say that there must be some threat from things present and things of creation. They are not capable of separating us from God in Christ but we can desire them and be drawn to earthly pleasures and “stuff” so that God is not the most important person in our lives.

When we aren’t separated by these things it is the work of the Almighty Protector and Keeper. (Hallelujah!)

As Christians, God protects us. He prompts us to remember Him. He convicts us of sin so that we will stop and think about what we have chosen over Him. He gives us that little slap and says, “This is for the stuff I’m seeing that you’re not!” Then, He provides that hedge of protection (that we do not see) so we have opportunity to respond to Him and serve Him.

As my Dad “punished” us for what he did not know, will we praise God for what we cannot see?