God the Tangible

Last night we prayed for us as were preparing to go to church in the morning. Praying for the girls to have open hearts to what they learn, to be able to understand what they learned and for Daniel and I to be able to share God to our class and use us so our kids could hear from Him and understand what they were hearing.

As I explained to the girls what we would be praying for that night, I talked about who God is, I have done this before but tonight they were much more interested. To make God tangible to a 2 yr old I explained that God created everything, He made the skies, the stars, the moon, the sun, He made them and us and so on. {this was good timing too as their Sunday School class has been talking about creation anyway}

The girls began to point to things and ask if God made it. Their beds, their lovies, our dogs. It was fun. It was also neat to see them start to understand more about God. It was bringing God into a bit more perspective, as well as grasp Him because they could see the things He made.

I told them that God is everywhere and spread my arms out to show them. Rose and Lilly both asked if God was also in the glider that no one happened to be sitting in in their room. I said yes. God is everywhere. Even in the chair.

Rose and Lilly jumped up and ran to the chair, stood on the side of it and said, "Hey God!"

Adorable overload.

They babbled and made conversation with the empty chair.
But to them it wasn't empty.
The creator of heaven and earth was sitting there. To them He was already loving and friendly. He understood their babble. He enjoyed their smiles and their faith. 
Lilly asked to hug God. I said sure! God loves hugs!
They both opened their arms wide and wrapped them close, smiling. They made a friend.

We then prayed and I said we will learn about God tomorrow when we go to church.

We lifted the girls up to lay them in bed and Rose cried that she wanted God.

She ran back to the glider, snatched some air over the chair and then, ran with a clenched fist to her bed and threw her air into her bed, then proclaimed, "There He is!"

It was so funny.

I laid her down and she kept telling me God was next to her. I agreed and kissed her goodnight. Lilly followed in suite and said God was in her bed too.

This morning I picked Rose up out of bed. She wiggled and whined, then reached into her bed, snatched the air and with a clenched fist told me she was taking God with her downstairs.
I laughed and said SURE! I was impressed with her remembering last nights events.

All morning she had a clenched fist, she pretended to pass God into her other hand if she needed to switch hands for something. She also would say, "Oh no! I dropped God!"
I told her she can't drop him but to a two year old who believed she was holding something in her hand, He could be dropped. She would pretend to pick him back up.

We went to church and they got busy with the day.

I was thinking how funny they were, how they saw God in their minds as someone they could carry with them all the time, to be held with a clenched hand, to worry about dropping Him, to worry about making sure He wasn't left in bed.

Oh how much we can learn from a child...
Is it silly? Is it really just a 2 yr olds wild imagination? Just a need to feel He's tangible to go through such extents? To talk to Him in a chair?

Isn't that how we should be?

Tangible:

a : capable of being perceived especially by the sense of touch : palpable

b : substantially real : material

: capable of being precisely identified or realized by the mind 


Related words: 

tactile; corporeal, physical; actual, concrete, embodied, existent, material, real, substantial; appreciable, detectable, discernible (also discernable), noticeable, observable, perceptible, seeable, sensible, visible

Shouldn't God be visible to us? Substantial, real, existent, concrete, actual, physical? 

The more we believe God is everywhere, in our homes, our rooms, beside me as I write, beside you as you read. The more concrete He is, the more detectable, the more seeable.

The more He is of these things, the more we are able to reach out and clench on to Him. To talk to Him. To remember not to leave Him in our beds when we wake up and go on in our days. To simply turn and ask God for help, He is right there after all isn't He? 

To remember not to drop Him. But to hold on to God the tangible.

My daughters & their faith can really give their mother some perspective.

I want to see God in my home, to acknowledge Him always in my house, in my car, in my workplace, in my church, wherever I go. The more I do that the more I'll reach out to Him, talk to him, listen to Him, be accountable. The better our relationship will be.

I want Lillianna & Rosalee to see God this way always. Luckily they already have a head start on me.

The girls got hugs from God last night.

it's not silly.

It's tangible.

He's tangible.

Unveiling

6/17/13

I'm not always sure how to open a blog post, mainly if it is going to be an intense one.
So that's my opening.

It's funny how God can shine a light when your not paying very close attention. Even funnier when He hit's you with that light like a semi truck with it's brights on.

I had been reading a wonderful book called, Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers. A very well put together book about incredible women in the Bible. I eagerly skipped over a chapter to read the story of Ruth. Some reason or other I just stopped right towards the end.
I couldn't find interest in finishing it's last bit. It had been months.
Last night I sat on the couch with my mind just going in every which direction. I felt like I had choices to make and I didn't know how to even start. My pitiful two second prayers asking for an answer weren't cutting it and I was absorbed in my own confusion I couldn't find what I needed to really seek my answer.
Then I pick up my book. Of all the times to read, my mind couldn't contain itself and I decided to attempt to redirect it's attention to a story. Then the truck with it's brights hit me.

There is so graciously a devotional at the end of each story of these women in the bible. I finished up the story of Ruth and I felt the sense of celebration as I ended it, satisfied. Yet, I pressed on to read the devotional. Something I wouldn't have done normally, especially late at night, with my mind overflowing, with my husband gone up stairs for the night already, all these unusual things but I found myself in the midst of God by continuing into the devotional time.

Ruth had to make life changing decisions. Extreme ones. I need to make big decisions and are extreme to me.
I told my husband I am not one to jump off a bridge and say, "God catch me!"
But I am one to use a rope and say, "God, I trust You to hold me."
I found myself at the top of a bridge and I looked down and coward. Because the rope can seem uncertain. It can seem weak and frail. But at the bottom I could see what I desired.

That also scared me.
Because sometimes it's hard to believe that my desires are God's as well.
Because sometimes I like to believe it is to justify my own wants.
I'm afraid of making up my mind based only on me and my wants, and making a mistake.
Praying for something that I've made up in my mind to do already and just asking God to play along.

"I am going this direction God! Come and follow me!"
when it should be,
"I will follow You and go Your way."

But I couldn't find my mind in any kind of clarity to see the path I needed to take. To follow.
This time of devotion opened my heart, my ears, cleared my mind and I found myself in discussion with God. As I read each question I heard it like God was beckoning me. & then there was this passage:

Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.'
Romans 12:2

I prayed for a transformation. To change the way I was thinking, so I would know what He wanted me to do.
& when I prayed this, I knew how good and pleasing and perfect his will really was.
It was so clear.

Suddenly as I asked questions that had been running through my mind over and over, they were just being answered, so plainly.

'Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.'
Proverbs 3:5-6

So what has been so intensely on my mind I could hardly focus, that I need this awing moment, to be hit by an oncoming vehicle with it's lights blaring on me?


I've decided, along with my husband, that I will give my notice at work & officially be a full time stay at home mom! {Insert giant happy smiley Liz here}