Category: Uncategorized

 

In John 15:9, Jesus tells us “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now abide in my love.”  We not only have a God who has adopted & treated us as His children and heirs, & sent His son to die that we might live as such, He also provide for us a home.  Jesus tells us to remain in that love..to abide in it…to make our dwelling place in the home of His heart.  Wherever we go, whatever our circumstances, however far we may roam…we always have a place “where we can enter and be at rest, even when all around…is a sea of trouble” (31 Days of Praise, Ruth Meyers). This home is none other than the heart of the love that surpasses all understanding, a love that relentlessly pursues us.  

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros sing a very popular trendy song entitled Home Is Wherever I’m With You. To me, the lyrics have always shouted of God…the only One who can truly be our lasting place of refuge:

“Ah, home, let me go home

Home is wherever I’m with you.

Holy moley, me oh my

You’re the apple of my eye…

I’ve never loved one like you….

You’re my best friend

I scream it to the nothingness

There ain’t nothing that I need

Ah, home, let me go home

Home is wherever I’m with you.”

He also provides for our companionship; we are never left alone. Our Omnipresent God has promised: “Never will I leave you, & never will forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6, emphasis mine). In Romans 13:14, the Apostle Paul commands us to “Clothe [ourselves] with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Within the heights & depths of our human experience, we may feel unseen at times regardless of who we share our lives with tangibly. He sees. He surrounds us with His Presence, unfailingly goes behind & before us. He hems us in (Psalm 139:6), lives with us, loves us, sees us, understands us. He is THE ultimate Witness to each of our journeys. As the Psalmist proclaims:

“You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in-behind and before….Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far ends of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.  If I say, surely the darkness will hide me, & the light become night around me. Even darkness will not hide me, the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created me in my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:3-5a,7-13).

Let us accept Jesus’ invitation to share our respective & collective journeys with Him. “Remain in Me, & I will remain in you” (John 15:3). In celebration of this gift, we can rejoice with the cry of the disciple John: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (I John 3:1, emphasis mine).

 

We’ve all tried it….tried to fill our wells with broken cisterns.  At some point, almost all of us have been in a place where we’d do anything to have that one thing, or become that one thing, that would satisfy our longing souls. We’ve all pretended we’re okay without it, that we don’t really need it after all, that we’re not completely frustrated with the whole process.  We’ve thought that if we just keep waiting & just keep trying, maybe one day, we’ll come across it. And yet, most of us are still searching… still waiting.  

It’s the pretense of it all that keeps us searching, for in reality, we’ve been freely given the answer…the “One Thing”, as Rich Mullins says in his classic song. Deep down, we know He’s the One and Only who can satisfy our parched, longing souls.  God says it is only in acknowledging our poverty & emptiness, confessing our inability to save our own souls, that we’ll find it.  

He softly whispers to each beckoning heart: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have NO money, come, buy and eat!  COME, buy wine and milk, without money and without cost” (Isaiah 55:1-2)  A friend of mine once described the turning point in her own journey came when she realized she’d been scamping around the floor, desperately picking at the crumbs, yet there was a continual feast above prepared for her…she needed only accept the invitation.  Are we ready to accept? Are we willing?

Etta James once sang the lyrics to Mack Gordon’s classic love song “At Last”. Here, think how perfectly these words describe the love of our LORD:  

AT LAST…

My love has come along

My lonely days are over

And life is like a song….

Oh, and you smile, you smile

Oh, and then the spell was cast

And here we are in Heaven

For you are mine at last
So, what are we waiting for? At last, let’s accept His invitation…let’s feast with Him moment by moment…let’s rejoice in Him as He sings over us.

Like the sparrow, I am the most ordinary of creatures, & yet life has given me a magical song. Like most, this journey has held its share of adventures & challenges, gifts & paradoxes, joy & sorrow. Though single long into my adulthood, the Lord has been my companion. Though often frail & sick, My God has been my strength & sustenance. I’ve soared on the heights & plunged to the depths. I’ve been disappointed by others, disillusioned with myself, succeeded & failed. Yet…I’ve been changed…by…God’s…grace. It has swept me away on its currents, strengthened & freed me for flight.

Ann Voskamp has said, “Grace is like the wind, it finds us as we are, but it does not leave us as we have been….ALLis grace” (emphasis mine). These ponderings are a celebration of the journey & gift of life, a reflection of the process God has me in, a proclamation in my belief that regardless of circumstances, He is always at work for my good & His glory. Through the songs He has sung over me, I’ve been given my own. It is true: I am as ordinary as they come. Yet, His eye is upon me. His provision for me is perfect.

He Himself is my portion & my song.

“Why should I feel discouraged?

Why should the shadows come?

For His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know He watches me.

I sing because I’m happy,

I sing because I’m free,

For His eye is on the sparrow,

And I know He watches me.”

-Civilla D. Martin, 1905