Morning arrived with the dew as expected. As the sun's lattice like rays extended through the countryside, creation began to stretch and groan from its nocturnal stillness: There He waited, there He stood longing and there He desired a sign of love from His beloved. He watched as the day gently brushed against the cheek of His beloved, as the sounds and smells of promise were diffused with the meandering currents of conflict. He Gently whispered, "Behold, I am yours and you are mine." But an anesthetized stillness provided no reply, no response from His beloved, but He stood there still and He Loved.
Then time slammed its gavel of "urgency calls", and we arose with a heart pounding start. We raced right past the Love of our life, and hastily glanced at His love letter that had boldly pronounced "Wait!" Wait? ... (under our breath as though we would not be heard) "You've got to be kidding". Then piously we declared, "We will set aside some quality time later when we can give full focus to love."
We had barely miss-buttoned our clothing, shimmy-jammed our feet into our shoes, and guzzled down some sustenance when the inrush of concerns for the day slammed into our already unbalanced forward movement. Way out of kilter now, our failure to stop and listen to the Love of our Life would begin to take its toll.
He watched on with no "I told you so!". He now spoke quietly "Come unto me all ye that labor!". We thought we may have heard that still small voice; and just for a moment the thought of the sound lifted us, but the weight of the day must have heard it also for with even more gravity it weighed down on our souls. He still waited, and loved.
The hands of the clock finally aligned in the predetermined manner, and our captors released us to our wind down time. You were waiting at the gate to great us with a love offer to release us of guilt and shame, but for some unintelligent reason we thought we could do the impossible ourselves. So we wrestled the immense package of sensed failure onto our already bending frame, and all but crawled to our evening of "home", our hiding place.
You were with us through every agonizing moment of that movement to an unrequited rest. You once again watched over us as we lowered our senses and slowed our defenses in hope of relief. You watched as we mutely dimmed the lights and slipped back into the welcomed comatose state of sleep. You gazed on at our troubled dreams ... you interjected what fragments of hope that we had caught on the way, and gathered them together in our dreams; ... but there was so little hope to work with because of the literal "Word" deprivation of our hearts, minds, souls and strength that our sleep was without true rest.
You waited once more, O Lover of our Soul. You would once again whisper sweet and precious promises to our almost lifeless forms. You would do this without regret and without hesitation. For perhaps this would be the day that we would reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive in You. Just per chance our first full breath into the day would be a prayer of re-crucifixion with you.
O to be dead to ourselves but alive to You... Who love us and gave Yourself for us."I am crucified with Christ, never the less I live; yet not I; but life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. " Galatians 2:20. This is not a one time deal ... this is a conscious act of the will to "die daily" to myself and to be fully alive with Him.
The Hope for tomorrow: We awoke to Your sweet Voice calling us to walk with You through the Garden, up to Calvary, to be crucified with You and to rise from the tomb with You fully alive and empowering our day for Your Honor and Your Glory, Amen.
Here is the Victory!!!
HLFA,
Jeff