A Message to the Wandering Heart

“You are loved.”

The morning breaks with the foundation of all strength, the whisper through the night, the promise of a life; full, captivating, beautiful.

And I hear its sound through the struggling trees, through the lost dove, the aching needs of a world playing match-maker, blind dating with empty achievements…

Worthless pleasures.

Like a rock, He isn’t threatened.

He doesn’t charge or take vengence. But instead, stands like a gentleman, outside the shadows, reaching out for you to see Him.

He whispers, that you might hear Him…

Waiting for all creation to draw close to Him…

That the lost might find their way back home.

“You are loved.”

And why is it, those breathing, accept they’re created?

The mother nestles a child from her womb. Offspring cling to the ones that cared for them when they were weak, helpless.

Yet, man still, has been known to drift?

Man leaves The One that loves him most, The One that spoke him into being, The One that fixes His eyes on His beloved and longs for reconciliation….

Wrestlessly, man wanders.

We drift from the One who Created us. We leave the One that loves us best, for second-hand substititues….

Love that does not satisfy.

“You are loved.”

I see so much of the world resting on dry ground. Stagnantly watching on chairs, like Bernie Sanders, waiting for something without care.

Arms folded, legs crossed.

Yet, I hear Him crying to the complacent, “My beloved. You are loved.”

I remember explaining to my child awhile ago…

As water flooded the land around us, it looked like it has destroyed the fields. But the silt from the waters depths, actually fertilized the earth…

Bottom-ground silt, actually produces deeper, richer soil.

Harvests derived from flooded grounds produce the wildest and most plentiful crops.

Yet, we sit on dry ground. High above the crowds. Contrite in our judging with condemnation. Land beneath us barren, cracked, flaking, hard…

No space for seed.

Seed on dry, desert land, never springs life, abundantly.

“You are loved.”

So many wait in the valley. Clawing, wishing and dreaming for a land where stars are near, the lowlands don’t ring with distractions, the earth doesn’t pulsate with a thirst birthed from stagnant apathy.

Yet, He whispers, “Water always runs downhill.”

I see the valley’s flood again.

A thirsty people laugh, dance, rejoice in the gift that fills the soul, quenches the swollen tongue, saturates a mouth, unable to beg, but needing something…

Other than what this world offers.

We are valley dwellers. Valley dwellers in this land, still waiting for Zion.

Desperate for a God to stretch out His hand and draw near in a way He hasn’t since Acts.

“You are loved.”

And how the desperate market love in our societies. Market love with merchandise and advertisements.

Promise the world this or that, telling us everything we “don’t have” will give us the fullness of what we are truly in need of.

Yet, man and what he offers, cannot satisfy.

Food or clothes, cars or homes, will never fill that God-sized-hole aching for something inside us, needing to rise and take its place.

We were made for Him.

Like a child intertwined for eternity with the mother who created him…So is God forever intertwined with us.

He lives. He breathes. He waits for us.

He speaks to us through Holy Scripture. Longs to commune with us in quiet places, chiseled out for him.

Can’t you hear Him?

“You are loved.”

You are loved, not because of what you do or how you think.

You are loved, not because of titles or positions, abilities or because of your own self-sufficiency.

You are loved, if you were or had nothing in this life, but the air that He has given you.

If you lived on a stranded island, abandoned to filth and rags, possessing only the skin He has wrapped you in…

“You are loved.”

Why? Why is this one simple concept so hard for humanity clawing for some hope, connection, and identification of who they really are?

Don’t you see Him? Standing with the porch light on, waiting for you….

“You are loved.”

Or do you think, our Father just punishes and judges? Jesus came to smack us or correct us?

He is both the Lion and the Lamb. Unified.

Perfectly tucked inside, Grace.

He is grace. Strong and gentle, kind and patient, Savior, King.

He is not some kind of abusive husband. Some slave owner. Harsh captor. A man to take advantage of you, in your weakness.

He waits at the doorway of our hearts, until we welcome Him in.

He will not force himself. He isn’t always angry.

He is love.

Everything we have ever been looking for, wanting, needing.

And He calls us, continually…

“You are loved.”

Do you hear him?

Won’t you let Him meet you in the valley of your uncertainty? Won’t you ask Him to speak to you? Open up His Word and see He is genuine, solid and true?

He is life, life giving, like the floodwaters saturating everything you knew.

He wants to meet you, place a harvest in you that ripples for generations.

He is love.

And He calls out from the edge, near your shadows, with longing in His eyes for you to come into the light.

Won’t you meet Him there?

The light is on. He is the light.

He is the fulfillment of everything you have ever needed.

Jesus is not religion, duty, demands or misused authority.

He is love.

Relationship, companion, guide, friend to even me, a sinner.

And He loves you, deeply.

He is calling, simply.

He reaches out His hand and wants you in relationship with Him.

He is speaking, directly to you today, saying these three small words.

Won’t you receive them?

“You are loved.”