LOVE & LEOTARDS

 

Many years ago, my best friend told me a story about her daughter’s adamant refusal to get ready for dance class.  My friend was at work and her two daughters were with the babysitter who had been instructed to get the girls ready for dance class.  The oldest, Leigha, when told to get dressed, happily got herself into her tights, leotard and dance shoes.  She was ready to go.   But Kate, the youngest, down right refused to get ready.  No amount of coaxing, bribing or threatening was working.  The babysitter kept saying, “Katie, get into your leotard now!” Then she would soften and coax, “Katie, you love dance class!  Come on, Get ready.”  But Kate was not having it. 

Finally, in complete frustration the sitter said, “Katie, why don’t you want to put on your leotard?”  Through sniffles and tears, Kate defiantly said, “I don’t want to wear a Leigha-tard!  I want to wear a Katie-tard!"  Then the clouds parted and it all became clear.  Poor Katie thought that her dance “outfit” was made for her sister, Leigha and she wanted her own “Katie gear”.  And who can blame her?

Isn’t that what we all want?  We long to be special to someone. We want to be seen.  We want to be loved. We don’t want to be a stand-in or have a bit part.  We want to be the star of our own show.  We may be shy, quiet and reserved, (well, not me but some of us) but even in our shyness, we long to be seen and to be cherished by someone.  That longing was placed in us from the very beginning.  The God who created the stars and the heavens knows who we are and cherishes us as His own.  One of my favorite verses is: 

Genesis 16:13 MSG.                                                                                                                                      She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me!” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”   When I am flat out on the floor begging for answers, on my knees giving thanks or bowing my head in my car before work asking for strength and wisdom to make it through another day, I long to know that my God sees me.  And I know that He does because the bible tells me that He sees us all. 

Even if we don’t want the attention of those around us, there is a deep longing inside of all of us to know that our Heavenly Father loves us and sees us just as we are and thinks that we are perfect just how He created us.

Our Lord and Savior loves us deeply and wants the very best for us.   Like Katie, have you ever found yourself looking around and felt like life just seems to be better for your “sister”?  Do you wonder if He loves “her” more?  To quote one of my favorite movies, Nicholas Cage, playing Jack Campbell in The Family Man says, “Where are my Mary Janes?”  But friend, God loves you with the same intensity and magnitude that He loves every one of us.  And God not only loves you, He wants intimate relationship with you.   He has written your name on the back of His Hands. Isaiah 49:16  Think about that.  I don’t have any tattoos and I don’t know much about them but what I do know is that you have to really hold someone in the highest regard if you’re going to tattoo their name on the back of your hand. 

The King of kings loves us.  He loves us just as we are.  And even more amazing is that He created each one of us just to love us!  We were created for relationship with God, almighty.  Isn’t that spectacular!

When my first child was born, I remember feeling so overcome with love for this child.  I knew that I had loved her while I was carrying her but the love that I felt when she burst forth into this world left me in awe and wonder.  I stopped for a moment and thought, “WOW!  Is this how my parents love me?”  It forever changed my perspective.  When my second child came along, the depth of love that washed over me with her arrival was not a surprise but it was no less awe inspiring.  Later, I came to learn that the love that we have as parents only gives us a glimpse of how God loves each and every one of us.  Take a moment to just let that truth settle into your soul.   Think of the deepest love that you’ve ever felt and then multiply it by a bajillion.  Even then, you can’t fathom just how much God loves you.

Isaiah 43:1 teaches:

“ I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”  Beloved, the Lord of creation calls you His own!  I know, ……..right?  Mind-blowing, isn’t it?

No matter what season of life you find yourself in right now, you may be living your best life or maybe you are struggling.  It may be depression, financial trouble, a physical illness or marital trouble but regardless of the many obstacles that we find on our path, we should know this truth:  Our Heavenly Father loves us.  He cares about us.  He wants the best for us.  He has a plan for us. Jeremiah 29:11  We don’t have to earn it and we couldn’t if we tried.  We don’t have to strive for it.  He loves us just as we are.  Even when we turn away.  Even when we are unkind.  Even when we forget to pray.  Even when we forget all about God, He never forgets about us. Isaiah 49:15 There is nothing that we can do to make God stop loving us and there is nothing that we can do to make him love us.  He just does.  Matthew 18:12-14 says that he will leave everyone else behind just to rescue you.  And when he brings you back, he rejoices!

Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, He embraced us.  He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ.  He did all this on His own, with no help from us!    Then He picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.  Ephesians 2:4-5

 

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38-39

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I really began to comprehend the Lord’s love for me.  Our pastor said very casually to my daughter when she was visiting that she was “so blessed to have a mother that loves the Lord.”  I beamed.  And then I hit “pause”.  Did I love the Lord?  I mean, really?  I was raised going to church.  I was saved as a young teenager.  But did I love the Lord?  I had a good healthy fear of the Lord.  I wanted to please Him.  I revered Him but did I love Him?  My life changed that day.  I began to ask God to create in me a deep and abiding love for Him.  I began to study God’s word about His love for me.  Leaning in and learning how God loves me was the threshold to my surrendering to a real relationship with my Lord and Savior.  I don’t want to negate the relationship that I had with the Lord until then but it is so much deeper now.  Praise and worship has become sweeter.  Quiet time in prayer is more meaningful.  I understand so much more.  I don’t understand it all.  And I never will.  At least not in this life.  The mystery remains but it unravels daily as I dive into His word. 

1 John 3:1 says:

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!  Read that again.  “See what great love the Father has lavished on us”.   God doesn’t just love us a little.  He has lavished His love on us.”   That is no small thing.  When you walk away from this devotion, I pray that you will begin to feel a stirring in your spirit, an itch that needs to be scratched.  I pray that you have heard something here today that will make you want to dig in deeper.  I am no bible scholar, as you can most certainly tell, but more and more, I find myself “itching” to get into my bible and unpack all that it has to offer.  And friend, there is so much there for us to discover.  Are you missing that one piece that will connect you to the relationship that you were created for?  I encourage you to pick up your bible and ask God to show you how much He loves you.  I promise you that He will.