Holiday Ruminations

I'm pleased to share an entry from my daughter, Crystal's (Tali's),journal in this blog entry. 2009 could be a rather wild ride. However, I'm happy that if we ask Him to, our Amazing God will come along with us.

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Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
May this coming year bring a greater awareness of His love for you and an expansion of His greatness shining through you. Below is something i wrote today in my journal I thought was worth sharing with friends. Our God is amazing and wild!
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How out of the box.
How crazy.

You create little people – so much smaller than Your vastness, so foolish compared to Your infinite wisdom, always dirtying themselves and their world, making pain for themselves and others, yet quite proud of themselves in their fallacy.

Yet You loved those little people so much that You came up with a wild idea – take their form to create a connection with them. Take their dirtiness and pain on Yourself so they can be cleansed and healed.

Why would You want to limit Your vastness, Your wisdom, Your place of comfort and perfection and instead live in a world they have dirtied and filled with pain?

Your entrance to this adventure would mean a cutting off of awareness, and You knew Your exit would be unimaginably painful

Yet, what is a loving heart if it does not love? What is a gift to loved ones if it doesn't cost us anything?
So You gave the most expensive gift possible to the ones You chose to love.
I would think angels might be easier to love. They treat You right -- worshiping you, fulfilling your every request with joy. But we spit in Your face, ignore You, cheat on You, and deny we know You exist.

Honestly, You have bad taste in lovers!

But perhaps You see something in us that we ourselves don't see.

Some beautiful deposit You put in us that we cover up with our silly efforts to prove our value.

Some neediness in us to be filled with Your love and strength, that we try to fill with other things.

But, with all our false pride and misguided pursuits, we weren't ready to accept Your love.

It's hard for our limited minds to perceive such an immense love that would step across the vast chasm between us and love us unconditionally, despite Your perfection and full knowledge of our lack.

So You have continued to pursue.

Like some crazy love-sick God, You chase after us, making a fool out of Yourself and proving Your love in so many extravagant ways til this day.

What a wild adventurer and lover You are!

Help us to open up and receive Your love! We want to go on wild adventures with you and love like you!
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The Plaque

After my mother died, I divided her belongings among family members. There was one thing, however, that I especially wanted for myself—a simple brown plaque with gold writing. She displayed it in the various homes we lived in over the years. It’s message? Prayer Changes Things.
And where did I place it? An unusual place: above the mirror in the bathroom, directly across from the toilet seat. This reminded me several times a day that prayer does indeed change things.
About the time I hung the plaque, one of our daughters was in love with a man many years older than she. When she came home, they spent hours each evening on cross-country phone calls. A marriage seemed inevitable. As parents, we hoped and prayed for a husband closer to her age.
Despite my anxiety, the plaque reminded me: Prayer Changes Things. As I read those words, I’d say, “Lord, I don’t see how You can change this, but I know You can do anything. If this match isn’t Your best for her, change her desires.
A few months later, our daughter broke off the relationship. God does indeed change things that we humans cannot.
God has not yet brought His choice mate into our daughter’s life, but I believe He will. And He helped her avoid a wrong choice.
Now, I have a different kind of problem that to me seems insurmountable. However, I believe it too will be resolved, for I know Prayer Changes Things.