Wholly Present

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today 

February 9, 2026

Wholly Present

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;

    it was our sorrows that weighed him down.

And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,

    a punishment for his own sins!

But he was pierced for our rebellion,

    crushed for our sins.

He was beaten so we could be whole.

    He was whipped so we could be healed.

Isaiah 53:4-5 

One of theologian Karl Barth’s most famous phrases is, “God is wholly other.” This term is understood as describing God as transcendent, unique, and fundamentally different from anything in the created world. This is true and points to the difficulty we have in comprehending God as Trinity. How can one God be three in one? This is incomprehensible, of course, without faith. The term ‘wholly other’ has influenced much of our preaching, and certainly many of our older hymns. Through the rise of contemporary praise and worship music, worshippers have been able to articulate the personal, wholly-present God envisioned in the prophesy of Isaiah above.

Isaiah wants us to grasp the reality of God who we can experience as,

You keep track of all my sorrows.

    You have collected all my tears in your bottle.

    You have recorded each one in your book.

    This I know: God is on my side!

Psalm 56:8,9b

When I read Isaiah and the psalmist, I begin to grasp that Jesus fully understands the anxiety I am feeling now. (As I write this, a severe winter storm is forecast, and I have winter whether responsibilities for our HOA.) Jesus fully understands the sorrow I am experiencing for the recent deaths of friends. Jesus fully understands the sorrow I feel for strain in relationships. Jesus fully understands my frustration in my efforts to age gracefully. And Jesus fully understands my feelings when Ben Fuller’s lyrics resonate within me:

I stand in front of the mirror

But I don't like who's looking back at me

Jesus isn’t disappointed with me when I have such thoughts. Rather, He just keeps working in me to imbed these lyrics deep within my soul:

Who I am in the eyes of the Father

Who I am His love set free

Who I was I left at the altar

I am Yours Lord, I believe

It's who I am

I'm a child of the most-high God

and the most-high God's for me

Who I Am

Ben Fuller, 2022 

My Takeaway: The “wholly other” has adopted me as His child. The most-high God is wholly present in my life. He is for me!!!

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2026 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.