I know who made all things;
Do you?
I know who created the seen and unseen;
Do you?
I know who has found the lost;
Do you?
I know who loves the sinner;
Do you?
I know who calls the forgotten;
Do you?
I know who carries the broken;
Do you?
I know who has won victoriously over the enemy;
Do you?
I know who satisfies in every way;
Do you?
I know who makes us whole;
Do you?
I know who watches over us day & night,
Do you?
I know who gives & takes away;
Do you?
I know who counts all of our tears;
Do you?
I know who rejoices over the ones He loves with singing,
Do you?
I know who died on the cross for the world,
Do you?
I know who defeated death and the grave for humankind,
Do you?
I know who sits at the right hand of God for me;
Do you?
I know Him.
Yes, I know Him-the one they call Jesus.
Do you?
The song, "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling comes on my Pandora station and I am instantly thrown back into time: I am sitting on a picnic table in the warm summer night. There's a "dance" going on at the campground my mother and I go to every weekend. The songs range from the latest country and pop songs to slow love songs. But instead of joining my summer time peers and the old, drunk folks in the jolly time, I'm just sitting there. I watch from the sidelines with my heart pounding because secretly I wish to be on that same concret of freedom. Secretly I'm desiring to dance with a boy who became my summertime crush, Danny. Danny was older than me by a couple of years, but treated me like beloved sister. He taught me how to swim, made me laugh, and made me feel like I wasn't alone. It's funny, how a song can bring back such a vivid memory as if it happened yesterday instead of sixteen or so years ago.
Not dancing with Danny those summer nights are one of my regrets in life, of which I have many.
Can you relate? What songs take you back and stir up such emotions for you? Are they good or bad?
I have never been into dancing, unless it's in my car...and alone. Yet, I am getting better about showing my floppiness in public.
Something I do participate in however, is dancing with the Lord.
Why? Let me explain-
Have you ever heard the song, "Your Love is Extravagant"?
I once heard a lady criticize that song and say that God's love should not be compared to that of a lover's. I disagree. In fact, as I am going through the book of Ezekiel I am often left with asking God, "Why are you always describing your love with your people so prolifically and intimately?"
I have shared in previous posts that last year I was recommended to read Sex God by Rob Bell. It had some really great insights. I highly recommend it to those walking with the Lord and reconciling this mentality of intimacy. One piece that sticks out is this notion that our relationships are to reflect what we have in and with the Lord.
Clarification: This is not saying that we have a sexual relationship (viewed primarily & traditionally as just physical) with the Lord, but rather the same spiritual union that we experience with a lover (the oneness). In a healthy relationship, the spirituality inside a person is a positive and mutual overflow which in turn produces a physical aspect. For example, I love my partner so much I give them a hug. The hug does not define the relationship...(nor should sex), but rather what my inner being feels about them.
But getting back to matters at hand-I want you see God more intimately than you have ever before. For our God is not a distant Creator; God is an involved Designer.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
-Psalm 139: 13-19
I led them with cords of human kindness,
with ties of love.
To them I was like one who lifts
a little child to the cheek,
and I bent down to feed them.
-Hosea 11:4
The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.
-Zephaniah 3:17
For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future,
nor any powers,
neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-Romans 8:38-39
And then one of my favorites is from John 17: 20-23 which is straight from Jesus' mouth. It is a prayer that we would be one as He is one with the Father.
Do understand this oneness?
Can you grasp this notion that the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, & Spirit) are One (not just three in one as in the singular sense, but one as in whole)...they are so content, so intertwined, so in love and fulfilled within each other. They have to be or else there would be something greater than God. And then what is even more jaw dropping is that God invites us into this union.
Can we take a moment? Can we just sit down for a second and ponder this. Humor me and sit down, take deep breath in and out...perhaps move to a space separated from others. Just let this sink into you. Maybe even take it to the Lord yourself, "Lord, what does this all mean? What does look like? Am I one with you?"
You get to be one with the One who is the very definition of what it means to be one.
So, yeah, I'll dance to that. I'll dance with that. I'll put on some praise music, put up my arms as if they're physically around another and twirl with my greatest love.
This dance is an outward expression of the dance that's been going in my heart. A dance the Lord began and invited me into. It's majestic. It's perfect. It's wholesome. It's priceless. It's precious. It's called my life. It's called your life.
I'll stand in awe of that. I'll remain in awe of that.
