Family Man

 “He was love, but he was alone, and love alone is lonely.”

Once upon a time we were created. We came to be not because God needed more created beings in order for His universe to subsist, but because the highest happiness that a God of Love could envision was the happiness of being a Father.

God intentionally made us in His image, which meant we were also capable of creating our own family units and loving our offspring to amazing degrees. In His Love, God made us capable of experiencing this utmost happiness with Him.

  

When Jesus came to earth He did not simply show us God, the Supreme Creator and King. Jesus came to show us OUR FATHER. Jesus came to show us that God is a family man and that we are His kids.

In essence, I exist because God wanted a family! Long ago God intuitively captured that His own highest calling was Fatherhood—the raising of children in the light of His own Love! With all His intellectual ability, limitless physical capacity, and creativity, the supreme satisfaction for His soul was found in having a family to nurture and Love.

He would do anything to see His family whole and harmonious again! Restoration is perhaps within reach…perhaps beginning with me recognizing how important the symbolism of marriage and family is to our very identity. Perhaps my perspective can begin restoring God's shattered vision, one family at a time.

(I recommend listening to the song Family Man by Andrew Peterson after contemplating the foregoing thoughts).  

My Second Date

My second date* with God turned out greater than I ever could have imagined.

 

The sun was close to setting and I was feeling restless. After a day-long conference in Oakland, I was driving back up north in need of a quality moment with God. My heart beat faster as I anticipated a fresh encounter with the Lover of my soul. I hesitated in my eagerness…in the passenger seat was my 18-year-old cousin who was alternately chatting with me and staring out the window in quiet. He was oblivious to my inner restlessness. Would he think I was totally crazy if I stopped midway home and said I needed to have a date with God?

With daylight slipping fast, I exited off Hwy. 101 and expectantly proceeded down the streets of an unfamiliar town looking for somewhere to spend a moment with God. I briefly explained to my cousin what I was doing and he didn’t seem too shocked, at least not outwardly. Coming around a curve, I recognized the right place. Next to a grape vineyard. Sunset colors in the sky. An enormous persimmon tree loaded with orange fruit shining against the deep green foliage (like a tree in the Garden of Eden, I commented). I parked and gave my cousin the option to join me or not. There, sitting on the hood of my Mazda, I talked to God. An informal, open-hearted prayer. Then I was quiet, and refreshed. My cousin witnessed in silence.

We drove off. That was my second date.

Unbeknownst to me, something had been stirring in my cousin’s heart. My date with God, and my comments about what God had been doing in my life, caught his attention.

A few days later, sitting next to him on the couch, I listened in holy awe and astonishment as a prayer fell from my cousin’s lips that caused joyous outbursts in the heavenly courts. He wanted to give a true relationship with God a chance. He wanted to taste what he’d only heard about. He wanted to know what real love was.

Thus, my cousin became my brother, and my prayer partner, and my inspiration, and my companion in a conversation about God and His Love that continued for the two weeks we were together. We both sensed the miraculous in what God was doing inside of us. We knew this was just the beginning of something momentous! 

 

And that’s why I insist, my second date with God turned out greater than I ever could have imagined.         

Postscript: It’s nearing five months since this all began to transpire. In the middle of writing this, my cousin called. We both agree that this journey is not an easy one, but we will keep reminding each other of God’s call to sincere striving and true love. We hold on to the promise that God will complete the work He has begun in us!   

* Dates with God began last year in October, following a personal conviction that I was in need of a deep love experience with God. These “dates” had to be spontaneous, in some unique location, and empty of any expectation except reveling in divine love and having a heart-to-heart conversation with God.

What the Greatest Commandment Doesn't Say

Seven words with a type of magnetic quality. I keep being pulled back to them. The words click into my consciousness at least once a day and my brain cells fire anew trying to decipher why the phrase is so important, so unrelenting, so difficult to process and store neatly on the shelf. Why is this line of syllables distinct from the thousands of other lines of information traveling through my mind?

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God…”  

Love Him. It doesn´t say…love the idea of Him. It doesn´t say…love what He does for you. It doesn´t say…love the blessings He bestows. It doesn´t say…love how He makes you feel. It doesn´t say…love the values that He taught.

It says LOVE HIM.

Love Him. It doesn´t say…acknowledge Him. It doesn´t say…think about Him every morning and sing about Him at church. It doesn´t say…obey Him. It doesn´t say…worship Him. It doesn´t even say…believe in Him with every fiber in your being. 

It says LOVE HIM.

The follow-up phrase drives the thought deeper. It describes a ridiculous level of loving. It articulates what true love requires. It depicts the passion-infused, life-consuming way in which He desires to be loved. Each mention of “ALL” seems to pierce our spiritual complacency…

"...with ALL your heart, ALL your soul, and ALL your mind."

My attention drifts, and then is drawn back. These words trouble me, but for some reason I can´t leave them alone. I realize that this verse intrigues and taunts me because it presents an impossibility. It shouts radicalness and depth of devotion that I am not only uncomfortable with, but completely incapable of.

Why in the world would He ask of us something that we are powerless to give?

Perhaps simply so that we would discover our need for the only One who makes impossible things possible. Love is the Truth, the Life, and the Only Way. This is what the greatest commandment DOES say!

Hold Him Carefully

It´s possible I over-think issues sometimes. But when you´re a still-life actor in a live Nativity scene and have to stay frozen in position for half an hour or so, it´s an ideal time for your mind to wander deep into thought.

 

I sat there last night with my glance cast downward to a Baby Jesus doll nestled in my arms. In my scene, two wise men looked on while Joseph stood at my side. I began to wonder what it might have been like to hold Jesus this close, close to my heart. I tried to imagine what it might have been like to be the first one, the first one to peer into the eyes of God´s own Son who was also my own newborn son.

Her gaze must have emanated the rapture and glow of new mothers. This warm bundle of humanity was hers to love. Mary´s joy-filled heart did not fully know what her hands held—the only true Hope for her and the rest of the world. But she knew this baby was a treasure of utmost value. She knew she must hold Him carefully. 

It took a split moment for me to recognize—I hold that same baby´s heart in MY hands. He was born of Mary, but He came to give HIMSELF to each of us. His pierced and now resurrected heart throbs for love of me. He trusts that His sacrifice was not in vain. He hopes that we will accept His warm gift and hold His heart carefully. 

How closely do I clasp Jesus in my arms? How careful am I to never let Him go?

Although we would be horrified to see Mary dropping Baby Jesus or leaving Him abandoned on the straw, we break His heart and forget Him without even a shiver. We let Him slip lower and lower on our priority list. Sin and darkness take any opportunity to snatch Him away from us. We chase after life—work, entertainment, friends, final exams, charitable activities, our dreams—and, most likely, somewhere along the way we have let Jesus´ heart crash to the ground. Perhaps we´ve returned to pick up that heart, with words of apology…but we have so many other things we are trying to hold on to that He is in constant danger of being dropped again.

Dear friends, let everything else go to discover the treasure who is Jesus. Let not negligence or distractions steal Him from your arms. An ongoing encounter with His passionate warmth is all that matters. He is no longer a fragile infant, but His heart is still strikingly vulnerable. So when He entrusts to you His heart of love, hold Him carefully.

LOVE GIVES

I had never met anyone like Him. For some reason, He thought Love was about giving…not giving the minimum, but giving ALL. When He told me He loved me without measure, I didn´t have an answer. When He told me that I was enough, that I (a simple girl sitting on a hillside with my knees tucked under my chin) could make Him happy forever, I could not believe it and so I just cried.

Me: “What can I give you? What is in this for you?”

God: “Just trust me with your heart, and love me.”

Me: “But will you give me the love to love you, because my heart is empty?”

God: “Yes, I´ll give you everything if you let me.”

Me: “Why would you want to give me everything?”

God: “Because that´s what true love dreams about, giving everything to the one cherished.” 

It took me awhile to realize that the ONLY reason He wanted me to love Him back was so that He could give more of Himself to me. He wanted my fragile, small heart so He could give me His. He asks for my love so He can give me limitless, overwhelming visions of Paradise. What makes Him happy to the divine extreme is seeing me wordlessly and joyously standing in the rain of His eternal Giving. God longs not to get anything but to give everything. True love gives all, and God is love. “For God so loved the world that he GAVE.” Oh, to capture this love!   

Green-Some

The juice wave has hit us!

In our local social sphere everyone and their cousin (quite literally) seem to be experiencing, or contemplating, the benefits of juicing. I was willingly swept into the current. As a result, I have tried more fruit and vegetable juice blends in the last 2 months than ever before in my life.

One fresh juice, in particular, has captured my palate. In fact, I can daydream about its winning flavor as I write. Something about its clean sweetness and tartness, balanced with a mellow hint of pear and parsley, make it my green swirl of choice. 

Try out my “green-some” blend below. For a look at what inspired many of us to get out our juicers, watch the DVD entitled Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.

GREEN-SOME SWIRL

5 green apples

3 pears (Bosc give a unique taste)

2 lemons (peeled)

1 large bunch of parsley

Notes: Experiment and modify to your heart´s content until the balance of flavor is right for you. If you´re low on parsley, throw in some cilantro to get the herbaceous undertone. For a smaller amount, use 3 apples, 2 pears, 1 lemon, and a little less parsley. Be sure to serve it right away in a transparent glass, if at all possible. Drink slowly and deliciously!