He Chases Us

I have some really fun pictures I want to share that I took on our quick overnight trip to the mountains. But, all that will have to wait.

I have had a very Jesus morning. (Yes, He's an adjective AND a noun - ha!)

The day isn't over yet, so I'm hanging onto this feeling for the rest of the day and am begging Him to let it spread to a week .... or, how about a month .... maybe longer.

Anybody besides me need a Jesus week or month?

I have in the worst way. I could've kicked myself this morning when I remembered I can have a Jesus day anyday I want if I wouldn't stay so distracted.

Okay, I have to save a lot of the details because it involves a lesson that I'm very close to teaching (I'll share details in a few weeks), but I wanted to document here how God's Word and joy through me can spread to my children.

Let me back up ....

On September 26th, I got up at 5:30 and read a devotion - like I normally do. This devotion was different. It referenced a passage of Scripture I had never read, nor heard about before. It was so interesting to me and the subject was intriguing.

Okay, I'll tell you this much .... the subject was about a white stone and the secret name God has for us.

Now, don't ask me to share anymore details :)

Later that day, I asked my friend, Rita if she had ever heard of that before. She said no - not until that very weekend before when someone mentioned it to her.

Okay, that's enough of an echo for me to know God wants me to dig a little deeper.

Two days later, I was on my way to Barnes & Noble to pick up my Travis Cottrell book (remember, the book they didn't have and I accused them of not liking him?). Well, on my way, I was listening to a podcast sermon and the preacher mentioned briefly the same subject.

Okay, that's odd. There it is again. (I'm going to say that a lot in the post).

In B & N, I couldn't find Travis' book (still don't get that), but I did see a book about my secret name. I stood there dumbfounded for the longest time and even looked over my shoulder to see if someone was there. God was, ofcourse, but I'm telling you, I was afraid not to buy the book. Clearly He was up to something. I even sent Rita (via text) a picture of the book and said something like, "Can you believe this?"

I read the book. Along with commentary after commentary and have many notes. I thought about teaching a lesson on it, but didn't feel peaceful about that, so I pushed it all aside and decided to see if God was finished.

Is He ever??

Oh, I should add that after E's field trip to a gem mine, she decided later to give me a stone that was special to her.

Do I even need to tell you it was a pure, white stone? Is God serious about us or what? I put the stone on my nightstand so I would keep the lesson in front of me everyday.

What I'm learning about it, and what I believe God is wanting me to get from it is a lesson I have needed personally for some time. Along those lines, He has reminded me of it too many times to count over the past month.

Just yesterday, I read Marla's post on Our Secret Names and nearly fell off the bed. She was reviewing the book I bought at Barnes & Noble. (This is the kind of stuff my friend, Pam would get a huge kick out of. Man, I wish I could tell her.)

Anyway, I left a very short comment on Marla's blog about all the different ways God had put this in my path. So ...... this morning, I had a reply from the author.

Ofcourse I did! Should I have expected anything less? God tickles me so much.

Okay, if you're still reading (are you?), here's the good part. I'll just say that when I left for school this morning, I was elated. I was so overjoyed at God and His pursuit of me that I was nearly in tears. I could've ran beside the van because I felt like I could fly :)

E asked me what in the world was going on. Why was I so happy?

So, she opened a can of worms!

I spent the next 20 minute ride to school telling the story to my girls and preaching to them about how serious God is about showing us He loves us and is in every.single.detail of our lives. I was giving every account .... and then this happened .... and then this happened ... and then that happened ....

Towards the end, O shouted "Enough! I just can't take it anymore! God is so good!"

That made E and I burst out laughing because we felt the same way! Enough! Can we even stand the goodness of God if we truly let it soak in? To understand how wonderful He is would surely be more than we could handle.

As we were walking into school, we were oblivious to anyone around us. I seriously thought the 3 of us would have revival in the middle of my preschool room! I got on my knees, looked my sweet girls in the eyes and said, "Don't you ever for one minute think God doesn't love you with an extravagant love. He pursues you!"

E says, "That means chase!"

Yessss!!! Chase! He chases us to make sure we know!

The girls were jumping up and down and just as quickly ..... O stopped jumping and started crying. "What on earth could be wrong with you?" I asked.

I will never as long as I live forget her words or the look on her face when she said, "I want to study about this with you, but I don't know how to read".

My baby was heartbroken over not being able to read God's Word!!!

Can you even stand it?

I told her we would most assuredly study it and she would know everything I knew about it when we are done.

All E and I knew to do at that moment was hug her .... and laugh.

Father, 'that you would think enough of me'? I say that to you all the time. What an extravagant love you pursue me with. I am so in love with you as well. Thank you for putting a lesson in my path for a month now so I could learn. But, most of all, thank you for giving me an extraordinary way to share about you with my girls. I want them to know you are present in their everyday tasks. I want them to know how to look for you everywhere. I want them to sell-out and love you without abandon. We love you so!

I'm almost finished with my lesson and cannot wait to share it in full with my class!