Shh…Listen (Spring has something to say.)

For more than just a few reasons, I’ve been at a loss for words lately – and it’s been to my gain.

We’ve been traveling, and there are new sounds. It has rained hard where we are – not like the drizzle my kids are used to. My two-year-old said to me the other night, “Shh…listen.” So I did. And so I am.

I am sitting silent and Creation all around me is going wild with springtime joy. The crickets and frogs are doing their best to outshout each other in praise of their Maker at this very moment (and of course, to entice that mate…but since He’s the One who told them to do that, it’s still an act of worship). My children are breathing sleep’s deep rhythms just a few feet away. The heater kicks on at intervals with a homey sound to drown out the happy clamour for a few moments, and then the night songs return.

It's good to listen.

When I listen to Creation, I hear joy – the joy of being made, born, hatched, sprouted, alive, existing, thought-up-by-the-Living-God. Creation may be waiting and longing for all that Jesus did to be revealed in us (Romans 8:22), but Creation is certainly not depressed. It’s not a muted, weak, watered-down, sepia-toned, half-alive existence we’ve been given on this planet. No, that’s not what Jesus died for. It’s the real deal He offers us and it starts now. If you don’t already know that, just listen:

The frogs will croak it.

The bees will buzz it to you.

The robins will dance it out on a just-cut lawn.

The salmon will splash upstream with the knowledge of it.

The whales will sing and breach, the leaves will rustle, the rivers will rush, the dew will drip-drip, the rain will drum, the pebbles will clack, the ice will crack and those crickets will scratch it out on their violin-legs all night long.

Wherever you are, there is something speaking with joy of the expectation that life holds because of Jesus. That is what the Christ offers to me. To you.

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!

That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

(Romans 8:15-25, The Message)

Ambushed by God in the Night Songs of Spring,

Kimberly

Stick Close to Me

When my oldest child was just coming out of babyhood, he had an entire vocabulary of his own invention – or so we assumed. One of the words that was most memorable to me was "dabaq". He used this word as a request, whenever he wanted one of us to sit down close to him. It was usually reserved for some tight-fit, sweet and cozy little place like a garden bench. It was a "cuddle-here-next-to-me-squish-in-close" request. He'd pat the spot next to himself and say, "Dabaq!". The word was so striking to me that I was almost certain it was a real word in some other language. I almost felt like I recognized it. I even got online and searched for the word in every spelling I could imagine, starting with d-a-b-a-q. I didn’t find anything, but I never forgot the word.

Father and son in a "dabaq" kinda spot.

Well, not long ago, I read this post by author Ann Voskamp and was amazed (but somehow not that surprised) to discover that dabaq really is a word. I didn’t find it in my earlier searches because it’s a transliteration of a Hebrew word. It’s the word we read in the King James Bible translated as “cleave” – as in “…and to him shalt thou cleave…” (Deuteronomy 10:20). It’s also the word we read in Genesis that describes the mystery-miracle of marriage – a man who leaves his parents to cleave to his wife, the two becoming one. That close.

I knew it! I was sure it was a word, and it was a good one.

“Cleave” means to cling to, hold tight to. It’s that “squish-in-here-tight” part of “come near me, stay near me”. In the passage in Deuteronomy, Moses is telling the Israelites that God wants them to come close, be near, “stick with Me”. Moses knew about this first-hand – he was the one who stood in the Tent of Meeting with The-One-and-Only-Ever-Living-God. Moses was the one who longed to be close to God to the point that he dared to ask Him, “Show me Your glory”.

David knew it, too. In the 31^st Psalm (quoted from The Message), he wrote, “Love God, all you saints; God takes care of all who stay close to him...”, and in the 91st Psalm, he describes the benefits to all those who would live right up under God's arm, by His side.

 And those of us who live after the Messiah came to walk among us – how much more should we see that He wants us close? He put on our skin and walked our paths! He died to bring us near, very near, dabaq-near. Two becoming one – that close.

Songwriter Jonathan David Hessler wrote, "You're more real than the wind in my lungs, You're closer than the ground I'm standing on...You're closer than the skin on my bones, You're closer than the song on my tongue..." (Abba) It's one of my new favorite songs...because it's true.

God is not the far-off whitebeard on a cloud. He paid a very dear price to have you very, very close.

Cling to the Christ.

He’s on the garden bench.

His hand is on the space next to Him,

and He’s holding that seat for you.

“Dabaq.”



Ambushed by God with an invitation to sit close,
Kimberly

When Love Sets the Table, You Don't Get Paper Plates

My husband is an extravagant-love man. When we were first married, he would turn to me (and still does on occasion) whenever we’d find ourselves with nothing to do and ask, “Want me to take you to Paris for lunch?” And the thing is, he meant it.

We weren’t wealthy. In fact, there were some pretty lean times those first few years – the kind of seasons when you go to the grocery store to buy five things that are under a dollar and then try to figure out how to make dinner with them. But if I’d have said, “Yes, please, take me to Paris for lunch,” then he would have worked overtime and sold everything he had to get me there. It might have taken awhile, but he would have made it happen – and he’d have done it with a smile on his face.

So when John writes in the Gospels that God is extravagant in His love and in the handing out of love-gifts, I think I kinda get it.

"The One that God sent speaks God's words. And don't think he rations out the Spirit in bits and pieces. The Father loves the Son extravagantly. He turned everything over to him so he could give it away—a lavish distribution of gifts. That is why whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever! And that is also why the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn't see life. All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that." (John 3:34-36, The Message)

A lavish distribution of gifts…whoever accepts the Son gets in on everything…forever…!

If that’s not the God I can love and trust, then there isn’t one.

I have a God who doesn’t force, doesn’t threaten, doesn’t arm-twist and doesn’t manipulate. All He had to do was love and He does that perfectly. He doesn’t skimp, doesn’t cheat and isn’t cheap. He's never stingy. He is Love, and when Love sets the table, you don’t get paper plates – you get the wedding china and the crystal and the linens. When Love sets the table, you find some delicacy you never even heard of before, and never even knew to desire.

Love gives more than is needed.
Love always goes overboard, and I love Him for it.

I recently lived out one of the hardest weeks of my life. The temptation was to be afraid – afraid because maybe it could be true, after all, what the snake told Eve about God – that He wasn’t to be trusted.

And I won’t say that lie didn’t sound shiny-new and kind of believable in the face of very frightening news. Except…I live on the other side of the history-marker: the cross of Jesus Christ. I know that there is an extravagant God who spared no cost – not even death – to show me His love. How could I despair in the face of that?

I know – terrible things happen sometimes. Some of them have happened to me, too, and to people I love. I don’t have explanations for that. When the bad news comes, He is there – He and all that outrageous love of His. And when the good news comes, all the better – I have Him to thank!

The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Christians at Ephesus and he wanted them to see that God’s love isn’t fragile. They weren’t going to outlive it, find the end of it or use it up. It’s a strong love. It’s a generous love. Paul wanted them to know what you do with that kind of love.

My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19, The Message)



Venus and Jupiter are converging

Starry sky seen through Aspen branches

I’m basking in extravagant, overboard, outrageous, too-much, over-the-top, uncontained and ostentatious, unapologetic love, and I’m so grateful that I don’t even know what to say. I’ll take Paul’s challenge. I’ll reach out and experience, test, dive, climb, live…the fullness of God’s love.

Ambushed by the Love-God at a well-set table,
Kimberly

Photos of a starry night courtesy of my extravagant husband - the one who gives me the gift certificate that was meant for him so I can have a new lens for my camera.

Oh, and also courtesy of the extravagant God who made, arranged and named all those stars!

The Song That Everything Wants to Sing

My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed.
(Psalm 71:23, ESV)

Human-kind just does not want to be alone. We have searched the heavens – since long before we had the technology to do the search any justice – for some sign that we’re not the only ones living, thinking, talking. We’ve searched the earth, too, and the depths of the seas – maybe we could decipher a language among the creatures? Along the way, we found music. Along the way, we found worship. No, we’re not alone – all of Creation is singing, singing, singing…so happy to have been created... so happy to have such a God.

Watch: Louie Giglio Mashup of Stars and Whales Singing God's Praise

Yes, the stars are singing (it’s not really a new discovery, by the way – it’s in the Bible).

The whales are singing.
The north wind is singing (check out an album titled, “Dis”by Jan Garbarek).
The waves are keeping time.
Planets are keeping time.

I love this video clip and I love his question, “Do you wanna sing along with stars and whales?” And while I understand what Giglio is saying about there being no lack of God-worship in song throughout the universe, I also believe the Song of the Redeemed – which can only be sung by a redeemed mankind – stands alone among the worship in the universe. I believe it could also be asked, “Do the stars and whales wanna sing along with us?”

With all the care God takes to teach the birds to sing and teach the bear to hibernate and tell all those migrators how to find the way home again – He cares that much more for the ones He made with His own hands, kissed to life with His own breath and redeemed with His own blood. I suspect all of creation wants in on one song in particular, and that song is ours to sing. It’s the Song of the Redeemed, and the rest of Creation very joyfully accompanies us.

Wind, water and ice at the edge of the river combine to play

sweet-sounding "ice chimes" at sunrise on a fall morning.

We’ve had the stars-and-whales music in the Louie Giglio video playing over and over in our house today, and there is a lot of wild dancing going on in the kitchen. The stars and the whales and my sons are singing about our Great God. I can't wait to hit "save" on this post and go join in!

O Lord, our Lord,

your greatness is seen in all the world!
Your praise reaches up to the heavens;

it is sung by children and babies.
You are safe and secure from all your enemies;

you stop anyone who opposes you.
When I look at the sky, which you have made,

at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places—

what are human beings, that you think of them;
mere mortals, that you care for them?

Yet you made them inferior only to yourself;
you crowned them with glory and honor.
You appointed them rulers over everything you made;
you placed them over all creation:
sheep and cattle, and the wild animals too;
the birds and the fish
and the creatures in the seas.

O Lord, our Lord,

your greatness is seen in all the world!

(Psalm 8, The Good News Translation)

Ambushed by the One-for-whom-everything-is-singing,
Kimberly

Love Stories

When you see true, genuine, better-than-fairytale-because-it’s-real love, you know it. It sticks out like a sore thumb in this world. It’s hard to miss. I know – I’ve seen it. I know women who married princes. Those princes may not have come with crowns and gold, but they are royalty and they treat their wives like royalty.

Many years ago, before I was married (back when I didn’t want to be married), I heard one of those women tell a story that changed my life. She’d come home from work exhausted and had fallen asleep. She slept right through the time she was supposed to pick up her husband from work. That night, he trudged home in the pouring rain. These were the days before cell phones and I’m sure he was wondering what had happened. When he walked through the door and found her asleep on the couch, his only words to his wife were heartfelt:

“Oh, I’m so glad you got some rest!”

When I heard that, I quietly said to God, “If I am to be married, it must be to a man like that.” And that is exactly what happened. Not too long after I heard that story, I married a man whose head is princely, whose heart is gold and whose soul smells of honey. I know a prince when I see one.

I have another friend whose marriage radiates such overwhelming love that everywhere she and her husband go, people can’t take their eyes off them. People stare at them. People eavesdrop on them. True love is irresistable. When these two were newlyweds, strangers told them it would wear off, but my friends rejected that unhappy ending and well over a decade later, they’re still drawing eyes and ears because that’s what love does – it draws us all in.

These are wonderful, amazing women, but they didn’t earn a better love story than anybody else – they just put down their own pens and let God write their stories. And nobody can write one like He can. He’s written an eternity full of stories. He’s written a whole universe full of stories. Some of them He hand-picked to put in a Book you may recognize. And He’s still writing stories – true stories of victory and acts of heroism and acts of selfless sacrifice, of generosity, of redemption and forgiveness and of reconciliation… But they’re all part of the same big story, and at it’s heart, it’s a love story. It's The Love Story.  You won’t find a better author for your life and your love.

About a year ago, the couple with the walk-home-in-the-rain story came to our house to stay for the weekend. We had a wonderful few days filled with laughter and food and music, but for me, the pinnacle was the snowy walk we took together down to the river. The men pulled the children on sleds. We women wandered along with our cameras and no one was in a hurry. She took this picture of our princes in the snow and the caption wrote itself in my heart. True Love was out for a stroll and even the sky had to do something to acknowledge its presence.

They were two good men without an ounce of guile between them and on that happy winter day, their hearts were as light and as white as the snowflakes.

Ambushed by the Author of Life and Love,

Kimberly

Getting Un-lost

The Big Dipper (Ursa Major) is right outside my favorite star-gazing window tonight. It’s standing on end. I’ve felt a little up-side-down myself, lately.

One of my childhood memories is of my father showing me the Big Dipper and explaining how to use it to find the North Star (Polaris), in case I should ever be lost. I remember feeling very comforted that there was a star to help me figure out where I was – even though I don’t think I really understood the navigation lesson at that age. And now I have a young son who takes great comfort in carrying around a compass when we’re outdoors – for the same reason Polaris comforted me.

Stars, a compass, a map – these are the tools that give us security when we’re outside four walls. But what about when our hearts are out there in the dark? What if life throws you some unexpected curves or circumstances spin you around until you’re disoriented? And what about the choices you make when you’re feeling brave – choices to live outside the four-walled-safety zone of “life as usual” and go off in an unknown direction? Where is your sky-map then?

It’s God for me. He doesn’t change. Even the North Star isn’t completely reliable forever – it is shifting. God is my fixed point for all eternity and if I know to look for Him, I can’t ever be lost. He said He’d never change. Not that He’s at all predictable, but He is always true to who He said He is.

I photographed the Big Dipper tonight. My shots are all a little blurry, mostly from star movement. But it’s 25 below zero (Fahrenheit) here tonight and I didn’t have it in me to shiver long enough to get a better photo. Back in the heated house, I’m looking at my pictures and I’m still a little up-side-down, but God is right-side-up, and I can just look at Him to get my bearings.

By your words I can see where I'm going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path. I've committed myself and I'll never turn back from living by your righteous order. Everything's falling apart on me, God; put me together again with your Word. Festoon me with your finest sayings, God; teach me your holy rules. My life is as close as my own hands, but I don't forget what you have revealed. The wicked do their best to throw me off track, but I don't swerve an inch from your course. I inherited your book on living; it's mine forever— what a gift! And how happy it makes me! I concentrate on doing exactly what you say— I always have and always will. (Psalm 119:105, The Message)

Now you've got my feet on the life path, all radiant from the shining of your face. Ever since you took my hand, I'm on the right way. (Psalm 16:11, The Message)

 

Take me by the hand; Lead me down the path of truth. You are my Savior, aren't you? (Psalm 25:5, The Message)

The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together. The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road. The life-maps of God are right, showing the way to joy. The directions of God are plain and easy on the eyes. God's reputation is twenty-four-carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee. The decisions of God are accurate down to the nth degree. (Psalm 43:3)

Ambushed by God and Un-lost,

Kimberly

How He Loves

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all…

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets Earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about the way…

He loves us……How He loves us……How He loves!

(Excerpted from How He Loves by John Mark McMillan)

It’s that big, fat, gibbous moon out there again tonight. I just can’t stay away from the windows. So I got out the tripod and I've been listening to the song above and shivering at an open window in a dark room of the house, shooting for the moon.

How He loves. How He loves us.

He scattered all those stars, drew the lines of the constellations, set the sun and then set the moon, whose light is only a reflection of the momentarily-out-of-sight sun. The moon – that midnight reminder that no matter how dark it is right now, the sun is on its way.

That’s just like God to put the moon up there in the darkness of the night.

Oh, how He loves!


Ambushed by God in the night hours,
Kimberly