Life Happens

“So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.” At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, “why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me – a foreigner?” Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband – how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” Ruth 2:8-12

When God blew the breath of life into Adam He was giving him LIFE. Not just a physical temporary life but a LIFE that was intended, created, fashioned specifically for an intimate, one-on-one spiritual relationship with its Creator. We are not humans with a spirit, we are spirit with a temporary body! From day ONE, God created LIFE for humanity as a gift to us. But Eve’s bite from the fruit spoiled that gift. Hallelujah that’s the beginning of the story and not the end! God, crushed at the thought of losing that intimate friendship with humanity sought to resolve the situation. Jesus threw Himself at the Father’s feet and begged to take the punishment we deserve so that the relationship could be restored and life could become a gift again instead of the curse sin had turned it into. Today, when we choose to have a relationship with Christ, we are choosing LIFE.

So many times we say things like “well, that’s life” as if to mean that bad things happen, or, well, that life isn’t a gift.  Every time we say something negative about life itself or any of the things or people within the creation that God gave us as a gift we are literally rejecting His gift to us, shoving it back in His face and telling Him it’s not good enough.

Lord, I don’t know how many times I personally have done this to you, but I know it’s a lot! Lord, I am so sorry, please forgive me for pushing your gift of life back across the table to You. I didn’t mean it! But Lord, the cursed life that I’ve been living, I do reject that. I know that it is not Your intent for us to live in bondage to sin, shame, fear addiction, prejudice, or malice. And instead, through the perfect blood of the Lamb, I claim the LIFE You made me for. The LIFE filled with hope, happiness, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control! The LIFE where I am filled with YOU! Lord, I know that I am a sinner, I am not perfect, but with Your help I can be closer to it. Please Lord Jesus, come and fill me with Your Spirit, please come and fill me with Your fire so that I may know You more. Lord, I want that intimate relationship with You, where I am Your bride and You are my beloved husband. The relationship where I can walk every step of my life in confidence because You are walking with me, through me! Lord, I don’t want to take another single step without You holding my hand and growing old with me, because the best is yet to be! Lord, the best part of getting and being married is knowing this person is going to walk with me for the rest of my life, that they are going to be with me, not just for the big moments when celebrations are in order, but for the everyday moments. For the stolen kisses in the kitchen when no-one is looking. For the moments when the kids are just being cute and you look at each other just to smile and laugh together. Lord, I want THAT kind of intimacy with You. I want those moments where I see a smiley-face in the soap bubbles of a soaking dish and know that it’s You smiling at me. I want those moments where I see a beautiful landscape and can feel You squeezing my hand as I look at it, as if to say, “I made this for you Baby”. I want that with YOU! I want to laugh with You over the silly things that I see in the world around me. I want to enjoy mourning, knowing that this is the only time in my eternal life that I will be doing it, because once we get back home that emotion won’t exist anymore. So I will “take joy” in it now while it lasts, but I promise not to linger in it. So please help me know how long is too long. Lord thank You for such a range of human emotion and how quickly we can swing from one to the next and experience everything in-between! Our human bodies are amazing and I thank You for mine because I am fearfully and wonderfully made!

Oh God how I love You! Thank You for being my LIFE partner and being here with me through it all. The joy and the pain, it truly is all a gift… even if it might not feel like it at the time. Yaweh, I praise Your holy name.

AMEN!