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Life is a journey.
How many times have we all heard that phrase? We all know it is true, and if you are like me, you hate the phrase because it seems like an excuse to the easy way out. No real answers, just the excuse that life is a journey. It is going to be hard.
As in all journeys, there are traffic jams, mountains to climb, miles and miles and miles of boring flat land, short drives through lush green areas with brilliantly colored flowers, stretches with no rest stops or restaurants, and pieces of road that could be paved with hamburgers and pasta for the number of restaurants on them. Sometimes though, when you are going through those bare and empty miles of highway you have to search for a restroom, or a place to eat. And what do you do when you are STARVING on a road trip? You search FERVENTLY. (Well, I do anyway :)
Life with God is similar. We have our ups and downs, our times of closeness and distance. Always moving forward, but sometimes discontent with what we have. I have been struggling through a time of seeming distance with my Lover and heartbroken by it, knowing that I have been the one neglecting to hear and see Him leaving love notes all around. You know what that realization does? It leaves one feeling worthless and foolish, unworthy of the love that He so lavishes on us.
Tonight we went down to the beach to see some sea turtles. Apparently on the East Coast of Florida, that is what people do at night...Kinda cool, I have to admit ~although we did not see a single turtle tonight.... Maybe another time. As we were walking down to the beach, I looked up and was instantly struck by the beauty lying there before me. Right in front of my eyes was a breathtaking scene: A boardwalk and palm trees framing a star-strewn sky that reached down into the velvety darkness of the ocean. As we approached the beach I could see the white caps of the wave glisten under the stars, reflecting the glow from the city behind us. We sat down on the beach and looked up. There were just multitudes of stars! As we sat, I was reminded of how much the night sky used to be my sanctuary to meet with my Lover every night when I would take the dog outside before bed.
I remembered a chapter I recently read in Captivating about the messages of love that God had left for the authors in such unique and specific ways for each author and began to pray that He would give me a shooting star as my note for the night. I lay down and stared up at the night sky, overwhelmed by the vastness of it, drinking in every seeming galaxy I was sure I could see up there. Time was ticking, and I started to fear that perhaps He was going to choose to give me my love note in some other way and that because I was so obsessed with shooting stars, I would miss it. My heartbeat quickened, but I was determined to keep asking and waiting. And watching.
Suddenly Raychel exclaims, "Did you see that Jo?? How could you miss THAT???"
Yes. I was staring at the vastness of the sky and missed the one shooting star. Did I get my love note? No. My roommate got MY love note. Sigh. I was so disappointed...and a little jealous that she got to see it. I kept praying and not even five minutes went by before I saw one of the longest shooting stars I have ever witnessed. It's tail streaming out from behind it as it streaked across the sky. As the orange brilliance faded back into the black onyx sky, I was overjoyed at my Lover's clear message to me. I literally squealed and was thrown into song for the next fifteen minutes or so.
We were sitting back down a little later, after taking a short stroll and enjoying some time worshipping the One who created the scene I saw tonight, and I was thinking how, even though He had already given two, how awesome it would be to see another one. A few minutes later, to my surprise and great delight, I looked up to see a THIRD shooting star.
It just screamed, "You're all You say You are!!"
Once again, I was thrown into a girlish excitement at how He had not just whispered His love to me tonight, but He literally flashed it across the night sky for everyone (who was watching) to see. As He is not ashamed to proclaim His love for me, may I never be ashamed to proclaim my love to Him.
For He is ALL He says He is!!
"If you seek Me, you will find Me, if you search with all your heart"
~Jeremiah 29:13
