Love expands in a world that’s wide across the sea and great divide-it multiplies and comes alive
And when that love begins to wane replaced by heartache, fear, and pain, the world contracts, and all feels lost like winter chill and biting frost
The soul it longs for warmth and light, for love’s return and wrong turned right
There’s only loss and memory in places left to destiny
To long for love and rue the day the best of life did fade away
A mother’s cry releasing pain- a lover’s tears like falling rain
A storm that rages leaving drought- the season that is dark, without
Groans and listens for the day- for warmth and love like ocean spray
That’s sweet and gentle on the face expanding time, creating space
The need that makes us who we are binding hearts both near and far
We are who we’re meant to be like waves upon a raging sea
We grow and change and find a way to rise and thrive with each new day
The miracle of the love we’ve known- the promise we are not alone.
We carry loss and give it breath, a healing that will conquer death.
Inside the pain of changing tides, we find our way to deeper life…
When we feel God calling us to new places , we may not want to go. Fear of the unknown is common to the human experience. When given the choice between safe passage to a destination we choose and a path that is unknown and leads somewhere we know nothing about, most people would not choose the latter. In our daily lives we make choices designed to meet our needs and wants. Self-preservation is part of our survival instinct. We navigate situations with our reliable five senses and our ability to rationalize based on the information at hand. God gave us these gifts to protect us. Why then does He ask us to ignore them at times, and virtually leap into the abyss of the unknown? 
We don’t see what God sees. He is Emmanuel, God with us. We blindly walk through life with limited vision and it is only when we take hold of His guiding hand that we begin to move toward our Promised Land. The Israelite’s journey, geographically, should have taken eleven days, instead it took forty years because of their constant rebellion. When they left Egypt, the Lord pointed His people in the direction they should go but they continued to turn from it.
When we left our home for a new place, I wanted desperately to plan ahead. I wanted to find jobs and a house and a church, a new foundation. All these things represented security to me. When the things we have been relying on for stability are removed, it gives us the opportunity to remember where our security should come from and who our Promised Land really is.
This month I prayed for a word from God, a word that conveys His theme or message for my walk with Him this year. I’ve been doing this for about eight years now. Prior to this, the thought of asking God for “a word” seemed strange and a little radical. Apparently, following God is a radical thing to do as He takes you to places you never thought you’d go! The journey is where God’s love story unfolds…
Everything changed that day. I was in a deep pit, trapped in a cycle of abuse, a cycle that began when I was child. I felt worthless, weak, lost. When God spoke those words, I felt anything but bold. I wanted to cry. I didn’t know how to stand up for myself or be bold in a way that wouldn’t result in pain and rejection and the potential loss of the only security I knew. This was ironic because I lived in fear, fear of many things, not physical harm, but deep unrelenting emotional and mental pain. The sad truth about abuse is that it becomes the place we are most comfortable. Our prisons become our homes.
I wasn’t there yet when God spoke to me. I was still in the “what plank? I don’t have a plank…” stage. But His voice resonated and repeated in my mind… “Be bold”. Clearly the message here was that I was not being bold. So what was I being? I had to really think about what I was doing that would make God speak these words into my life. I began to prayerfully ask God to show me what these words meant for me, in this time, at this place. How could I be bold?
It’s true what the Word of God says, there is no love that compares to the love of God, it is beautiful and pure and beyond our comprehension. In letting go of my safety, my dependence, my pain, I lost nothing and gained everything. I left my toxic relationships and God restored them. I left my loss and pain and found joy and peace. I left the comfort of old habits and found new freedom. God is love, and He is good!
“Be bold” was the beginning of a beautiful love poem God gave me over the next eight years. He is composing new lines in my heart and in my life to this day, words that guide and heal, that bring joy and revelation, each one leading me closer to Jesus.
“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.” Timothy Keller
You may collect seashells, stones, flowers, or other objects together. Take pictures to share with friends and family digitally. Say a simple prayer of thanksgiving, when you finish your creations, for Jesus dying on the cross for our salvation.
May you and your families be blessed this Easter with renewed faith, dedication, and love for our Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
In the midst of this study I came across a video of another Godly woman, Jennie Allen, speaking to a group of women on YouTube. She wrote a book entitled 
If you are feeling like you don’t know where you are going, or what your purpose is at the moment, stop. God has something important to tell you. Simply ask Him, and you can be sure He will answer through His word, His people, and His Holy spirit. The answers God gives us are immeasurably better than the ones we come up with on our own! Trust Him, He has great plans for you…
As I got in my car to leave at the end of that cold winter night so long ago, I saw through an open window a family smiling and celebrating. It was a family I’d known for many years, a family like ours used to be. My heart hurt to think of the terrible loss of our once close and devoted family. I knew on a deep level that it would never be like that again for us. The sadness overwhelmed me.
I wish I had known then that if I had let Him in and kept Him the center of my world, Christmas would have looked very different! I could have ministered to my hurting parents and my own suffering would have been diminished under the sheltering wing of God’s eternal love and peace.
More than 20 years later, I can testify to how God has restored our family and used our trials for instruction and a greater purpose. In the moment, I could not see how anything good would come of our situation and the ugliness that surrounded us. We let our circumstance overshadow the Truth.
Dear God, Help us keep our eyes on you this Christmas! The birth of Christ is a light into the darkness of our world. Help us rejoice, even in our suffering, for the glorious gift of Jesus.! You came to heal the broken ,save the lost, and love the unlovely. We stand in awe of you. Fill us with your strength, peace, and holy joy so that we may overcome whatever difficulties we face in this world. Bring us into community Lord, and help us to be more like you as we love the people in our lives in a way that reflects who you are and brings glory and honor to you, Father God. We praise you and thank you, in Jesus’ name, amen!
Fast forward 20 years and several miracles later, by the time I was born, Aunt Bonnie was the loving face that looked down at me, changing my diapers and holding me close. She was the warm hand that held mine when I stood close to her for comfort. She was the maker of many home cooked meals and special family gatherings. She was the one who picked me up after school when my parents could not. She was the one who sat with me when I was sad or discouraged and took my mind off my own troubles by effortlessly cheering me up.
This was who she was. Smiling in the face of pain.
Today, God speaks to me through my Aunt’s life. I realize this is how He sees us, the way I see my Aunt, through the eyes of love not the lense of brokenness.
From the Cradle to the Cross 