She knows there’s more.
She knows. I can see His reflection on her face. She knows God loves her and He sees her. She said His Name to herself on that swing, and whispered words I didn’t have at her age… I am free…
Let her always be free. Let no one kidnap her away from God with empty religion. Let her never unbelieve.
I’m convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love…
~ Romans 8:38-39
I remember witnessing echoes and shadows of heaven as my great-grandpa Clark’s soul wrestled free of its chrysalis.
He’d sit cancer-blind on the edge of his bed, wiping tears from his cheeks and say, I don’t know why Jesus has left me here. I just want to go Home to Him.
His bones seared with disease, a throb and longing to be with everyone he’d outlived, to finally be with Love.
He knew there was more.
He described hearing children calling his name from far away.
Sometimes he’d fix his eyes on Something I couldn’t see, Something that made his countenance young again, and I’d stare deep into his face trying to see what he saw. I never could.
Whatever it was, was heaven. It was Love, and nothing mattered to him but getting there.
No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.
~ 1 Corinthians 2:9
One of the writers of the Bible got a glimpse of Something that transformed him and left him unable to even talk about it.
He was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, things he was forbidden to even try to describe.
~ 2 Corinthians 12:4
There’s so much more.
Thousands of Christians are whispering that word to their closest friends, confiding There has to be more…
Heaven has not left us without clues. Jesus has not left us without hints of His Presence.
I nearly drive into the bridge walls crossing the Tennessee River because the sunsets are other-worldly. That round porthole of heaven explodes light onto the cliffs, and the throb Grandpa knew arrests me.
Heaven is so close…
It longs for us, too.
Heaven detonates with applause when even one person turns from the ways that distance his heart from feeling the Father’s love.
Jesus aches for us, like a mother hugging her children still warm from the miracle of sleep. When their tiny bodies lean into ours and we feel healing Love flow like energy from us to them, we’re experiencing Christ.
Someone reached and touched Me. I felt healing energy leave My body.
~ Jesus
{Luke 8:46}
Every good and perfect thing is a gift from heaven, especially music and art. God shows up in movie theaters all the time, His creativity moving us to tears, even though we don’t understand quite what we’re feeling.
We’re left in silent awe, not ready to leave as credits roll and a song lingers, Hurry up, Hurry up…There’s no more waiting, We’re still worth saving… Feel the Light, shining like the stars at Night…
I’m overcome, I tell you. His Love catches me off guard in the strangest places.
God is thinking of us, breathless for us to catch His light-shadows dancing off the lid in our cup-holder, rainbow prisms hovering over rapids, the siren of rescuers driving into chaos…
As if He’s saying, Do you see it? Do you hear it? I’m in that…
Seeing Him is worship. Aching for more is worship.
Jesus has not abandoned His poem.
For we are God’s poem…
~ Ephesians 2:10
Jesus the Word, the Poem-writer, came to speak God’s Love right into us.
Until we believe it, we do terrible damage.
I’ve made Your very being known to them—Who You are and what You do—And continue to make it known, So that Your love for Me might be in them exactly as I am in them.
~ Jesus
{John 17:26}
Everyone who loves reflects The Light of Life, and the more we know it, the more we manifest the power of His Love. Often this is when our spiritual gifts awaken.
We experience Him in thankfulness, kindness, laughter, music, good news, fun, jokes, art, delicious food, star-dusted skies, wind, color, honeysuckles, erupting stadiums, miracles of every kind, friends who sit silently with us on our very worst days—that’s Him.
God wanted to make known the glorious riches of this secret among the nations—which is the Messiah in you, our glorious hope.
~ Colossians 1:27
He has not abandoned us, no matter what anyone says. He is everywhere.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Where can I flee from Your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, You’re there;
if I make my bed in hell,You’re there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there Your hand will guide me…
~ Psalm 139:7-10
Scripture is a double-edged sword that can be used to either convince us God loves us, or hates us, depending on who’s holding it.
When someone tries to convince you that God is less kind than Jesus, or that God’s love has limits or His mercy is conditional, run.
Shout thank-you to God, Hallelujah! Because His love and mercy endure forever!
~ Psalm 118:29
The Bride of Christ is called the Church, the wife of Life who gives birth to the children of God by waking them up and telling them The Father loves you—be alive!
The Church is not a wife who aborts souls born outside God’s plan, telling them God can’t love you.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light!
~ Ephesians 5:8
Live as children of Light by seeing His reflection everywhere, by searching out the More.
He has promised we will find Him if we look for Him.
Seek Me with all your heart…I will be found by you.
~ Jeremiah 29:13
Grandpa’s longing to be with Jesus made me realize there was more. It was in straining to see it that I realized, I believed.
There’s more to this world. Believe it.
Good things on earth are clues from heaven reminding us to look up, so we’ll wake up and live, because this is not all there is.
There is more, but to see it, you have believe it’s there and that the Person who put it there, put it there for you to find.
I will give you treasures hidden in darkness and in secret places, that you may recognize that it is I, the Lord, who calls you by your name…
~ Isaiah 45:3
Don’t be afraid. Just believe…
~ Jesus
{Mark 5:36}
“Here we go. Here we go. Feel better now. It’s better now…”
Arise, shine! for your Light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is everywhere,
but the Lord rises upon you
and His glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your Light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Lift up your eyes and see it:
All gather and come to you;
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters…
Then you will see and be radiant,
your heart will throb and swell with joy…
~ Isaiah 60:1-5
*Lyrics from “Feel the Light” written by Emile Haynie, Kiesa Rae Ellestad, Mikkel Storleer Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen
And the song…