I recently read an article in Wired magazine about the little known world of content moderation.  It’s a disturbing story of regular people who make their living by reviewing and moderating all the visual content that is uploaded to the internet.  From your kid’s birthday party to grizzly beheadings to child molestation.

The article is the story of people who burn out after weeks or months of viewing the darkest, most depraved images imaginable.  The human mind is simply incapable of processing all that garbage without suffering irreparable damage.  They are overwhelmed by the filth and perversion of the human experiences.  And it happens every single day.

Which got me thinking.  Because I believe that God is aware of every aspect of our lives.  He is aware of everything in his creation, including all the graphic images (uploaded and otherwise).  And if ever there was evidence of the infinite grace of God, it’s his capacity to know, and to SEE all the dark, depraved events in our world (including, but not limited to those which are uploaded to the web), and yet STILL love the people he created.  Despite how poorly the human race actually reflects the image of God at times, he still loves.  He still longs to be in relationship with us.  Let that soak into your mind for a minute.

In the words of the 19^th century hymn,

O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me!

So while you may never see, or imagine some of the evil, dark desires and actions that content moderators see, you can take great encouragement that there is a God who sees all that, who absorbs all that horror and hatred, and who even sees everything in your life and your mind, and yet loves you as his long-lost child.

And for that we can be profoundly grateful today.

-Pastor Mark