Divine Romance

Cats, trees, oranges, clouds, honey, horses, flowers, dolphins, planets, seasons, mountains, fireflies. The list could go on and on. Lemonade, blankets, forests, apple pie, sunrises, sunsets, baby ducks, blueberry waffles, fireplaces, grapes, soft sheets, books fresh air. Do you ever just stop to think about the good things in life we get to enjoy? Do you ever ponder the bad moments of life that let us know when the good moments arrive? Beyond that, do you ever think of the senses and the human brain? Or of the very act of experiencing at all?

It is a beautiful miracle that we exist under a God who loved us enough to equip us with senses to enjoy His marvelous creation. He could have slapped us on the earth as unseeing, unhearing, unfeeling, unsmelling, untasting, unthinking blobs of gray to slug along the ground in a state of plain, unaffected existence. He really could have! But instead, God made life sensual! He hand-crafted each and every one of us to have eyes to see colors, and ears to hear our favorite music, and noses to smell freshly baked cookies, and taste buds to enjoy delicious fruit. He gave us muscles to defend ourselves, and jump for joy, and do hard work. He gave us skin that is easily cleaned in a warm bath or a cool lake. He gave us eyelashes that protect us from sweat, and hair that protects us from the sun, and instincts to know how to survive.

The human body with all its working systems is a masterpiece! It is designed perfectly with life in mind. And there are millions of these bodies walking around right now, able to appreciate, and experience, and interact in this wondrously inhabitable earth that God has matched us with! But God didn’t only give us a perfectly engineered ecosystem to exist in. He wanted our lives to be more meaningful than just survival. He also gave us talents and creativity to do good work on His earth. He gave us feelings to show compassion and understand warmth. He gave us active thoughts to analyze and find joy in the earth He put us on. He gave us the intelligence to make life complex, full, wondrous, and worth living.

Because of His intentional design and loving stamp of goodness, we can enjoy the very essence of humanity: passions, cultures, family, friendship, the feeling of being alive, and whatever it is that makes us laugh and smile and have fun. Because of this, we can farm, and invent, and design. We can research, and explore, and discover. We can philosophize, and teach, and express. We can heal, and nurture, and repair.

God gave us drive to advance medical technology so we can save people’s lives when death tries to sting. He gave us minds to explore psychology, and words to express the incredible things we find about the human brain that He created so wildly! He gave us curiosity to invent planes, so we can literally mimic the birds and fly through His skies, and cars so we could take rides through His glorious country sides. What a glorious juxtaposition! All of these things we can do, because he wanted to give us the freedom to take our own stab at life. God made us so capable to see what we could invent, to see what we could dream, to see how we could fall in love, to see how we could make a difference, to allow us to choose Him.

God didn’t have to do any of that! He could have made us statues that worship him with idle buzzing brains. He could have made us unfeeling zombies that do his bidding on command. He could have made us animals that bow to him out of un-choosing instinct. But our God is not a selfish God. He is not a prideful God. He is not a needy God. Instead, He is love. And wow, if He loves me, and you, and everyone else enough to give us all of these wonderful gifts, and still let us have a choice in whether or not we want to thank Him, or worship Him, or serve Him, or even acknowledge His existence, then man does He have my respect, adoration, and surrender.

If the beauty and love He has cast on this earth alone isn’t enough to make me want to worship Him then what is? How could I ever stop loving and abiding in a God that could take such a chance on me? How could I turn away from a God who has given me an abundant life and unconditional love, without forcing my obedience in return? How could I ignore a sovereign king mighty enough to build oceans and desserts and galaxies, but tender enough to hear my quietest pleas and comfort my smallest burdens that wake me in the middle of the night?

He doesn’t reach down from the heavens and push my head into submission. He doesn’t send a mighty gust of wind to force my palms up to surrender. He doesn’t shoot out a lightning bolt to strike beside my feet as a threat to do his bidding. He doesn’t pick me up and move me around and use me as a robot to preach about him. Does he have the power to? Absolutely. But He is a gentle powerful God. A lion and a lamb. Instead, He allows us to pray to Him first. He gives us so many reasons to want to worship. He shows us He is beautiful and gives us a desire to serve Him. He gives us an understanding of Him and plants a fire in our hearts to expand His kingdom, and a passion to spew about His goodness. He is in my opinion, the holiest example of a parent breeding a trust in his children that will forestall rebellion out of pure respect and promise. He is a patient God that gives us a choice and hopes that we will choose Him.

I simply can’t get over the vastness of his goodness. He gave us breath so He could take our breath away. He gave us hearts so we could experience His love. He gave us minds so we could understand his power. He gave us souls so we could receive His grace and help others discover it. He gave us desires so we could experience His providence. He gave us voices so we could tell of His goodness. And He gave us life so we could experience His sovereignty. His creation is designed to run on Him like a well-oiled machine. How often does our sinful nature destroy, manipulate, and corrupt an organism that was meant to flow so perfectly?

He has given us so many beautiful gifts, so many beautiful capabilities, and so many beautiful promises. It makes me want to do nothing other than choose Him as the Lord of my life. I know this world is corrupted and broken in many ways. But it is in these small daily tastes of His love, His goodness, and His sense of humor, that I see glimpses of my eternity in Heaven. And that is what keeps me going through trials and pain and suffering. I cannot wait for that day when every knee will bow and there will be no more fear, no more anxiety, no more depression, no more lies, no more betrayal, no more sickness, no more loss, no more hurt, and no more death.

“Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?”

~ 1 Corinthians 15:55

It is through writing that I can articulate my deepest feelings the best, so it is through this blog that I felt the most able to wrap my head around this great awe I have for my creator. I try to continually find new ways to restate my faith and passion for God, in hopes that I never lose perspective of the gospel and His grand design. I hope maybe this post has inspired your day with a little bit of gratitude, or curiosity, or love, or maybe an extra wave of awe for our grand creator that we rarely give enough credit to (not that He needs our credit, but He wants it). Feel free to drop praises in the comments. I would love to hear the things you are thankful for, or the ways you love our beautiful God! Let’s keep the fire roaring.

~

“For You I sing I dance,

I rejoice in this divine romance,

Lift my heart and my hands

To show my love,

To show my love”

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