I needed to go away, to walk with Immanuel.
God with us.
To remember who He is,
To hear the Gospel again, for the first time, and remember…
Abba.
That’s the name His children call Him, the Aramaic name that means Daddy.
The Father full of love, mercy, grace, and hope.
I really just wanted to forget everything and start over, as if I didn’t know anything about God.
So I left for a while and went wandering, into downtown city sounds and whispering leaves high in the oaks…to let Him find me.
Not all who wander are lost, they say.
And I waited for Him to walk with me and tell me His Story…
And He walks with me,
And He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own…
I spilled open the Acts on my lap, to read The Story again for the first time.
Waiting.
Listening.
I had questions—so many questions—but I just listened all around for Him…
The fountain danced in itself, splashing the sound of laughing water…
It sounded like God.
His Voice was like the roar of rushing waters.
~ Revelation 1:15
In my lap, sunlight illuminated these words, the trial of those ordinary people who were recognized as having been with Jesus.
{Acts 4:13}
They were different because they’d been with Jesus.
Not just read about Him.
It was their love that gave them away.
While I waited for Him, I looked around…
If you search for Me with all your heart, you’ll find Me.
I will be found by you.
~ Jeremiah 29:13
And saw the shadow of where it was finished, reaching across the lawn,
Always reaching…
Formed by a sign that confesses, One Way.
It pointed to the Fountain.
For with You is the fountain of life.
In Your light we see light.
~ Psalm 36:9
As I stood pondering that Cross and The Way and the Good News, a bumper sticker directly in front of me winked, God bless the whole world. No exceptions.
That seems awfully nice.
Does God bless the whole world?
He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good,
and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
~ Jesus the Messiah
{Matthew 5:45}
That would be amazing… like grace that truly is amazing…
Spending time with Abba will undo your theology and leave you spinning, round and round in love…
I was beginning to spin.
God, is that really You?
Wind warm like an answer blew, and in the stillness of my heart I heard, Know that I Am God.
I looked back again to The Book, starving to know more of this One who’s so lovely and pure and right…
There He was again…amazing me…
No one has ever seen God.
But if we love each other, God lives in us,
and His love is brought to full expression in us.
~ 1 John 4:12
So we’re an expression of God’s love when we love each other.
But when we use Scripture to make people feel unloved, He doesn’t like that.
Woe to you, teachers of religious law, you hypocrites!
You travel over land and sea to win a single convert,
and when you succeed, you make them twice a son of hell as you are!
~ Jesus the Messiah
{Matthew 23:15}
I strolled into the art museum, wondering if it’s that simple.
My religious mind began to protest, rejecting grace so lavish and desirable it’s too good to be true.
I began to feel selfish and jealous for Him.
I was tripping over it, the amazing grace of Jesus that is a gift for everyone that cannot be earned…
Now to you who believe, this Stone is precious.
But to those who don’t believe…A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.
~ 1 Peter 2:7-8
Inside the museum was a famous replica on cardboard.
Cardboard.
Because the Master Artist can use anything—anyone—as His canvas to take our breath away.
We’re all replicas of the Original.
Let’s make mankind in Our image, in our likeness…
~ Genesis 1:27
It was almost time for my visit with God to end, but I wasn’t ready.
I plunged back into Acts, like Bastian gobbling up The Never Ending Story before it was too late.
I couldn’t let it end without knowing what Peter would tell Cornelius.
They were all gathered around, anticipating…
What was the good news?
Cornelius was a man who loved God, who prayed, who gave gifts to the poor.
He was excellent in every way and God was so proud of him, and yet…He didn’t know the Good News.
I had to know the good news too, through the lens of amazing grace, without the anxiety of religion or condemnation…
What was Peter getting at?
And there it was.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ was contained in two beautiful sentences, just these…
Jesus is the One appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead.
He’s the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in Him will have their sins forgiven through His Name.
~ Acts 10:42-43
Believe.
Forgiven.
Everyone.
Period.
And just like that, during a walk downtown with God’s Spirit, I was ruined.
I was never going back to heaviness, to confusion or fear, or to questions with answers that I didn’t safely and deeply entrust to His love.
I call it ruined.
Jesus calls it free.
Then you’ll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
~ Jesus, Friend of Sinners
Tell me the story of Jesus,
Write on my heart every word;
Tell me the story most precious,
Sweetest that ever was heard.
…
Tell of the sweet Holy Spirit
He has poured out from above;
Tell how He’s coming in glory
For all the saints of His love.
~ Francis Crosby 1880
*Blog Blooper…
Here’s an outtake of me trying to be sneaky and photograph the fountain without the people at the park thinking I was photographing them…Apparently there’s an auto-snap feature thingy I didn’t know about.
