Proud Parent

My middle son turned 19 today. We did the normal family birthday stuff...ate a good meal, sang the obligatory birthday song, opened presents and ate cake. Then we just participated in regular family silliness. It was fun for all.
As we enjoyed each others company I found myself taking a few moments to just look at my son. Anyone who knows me, knows the strong love I have for my 5 boys. I love them equally and have no favorite per se. However, this particular son is the one that I tend to gravitate toward the most as he is most like me. He looks like me, has the same sense of humor as I do, we like the same tv shows and movies. He is like a smaller, much more intelligent version of me. I thought about him...about the man he is becoming. I found myself remembering the victories and setbacks he has had during his short tenure here. He has been relatively pleasent but has had his moments in the poor judgement department. Indeed, it was the times when he messed up most that I remember loving him the most. Angry? Yeah, sure. Disappointed? You bet. But, when my middle son, my "clone" made his biggest mistakes it seemed like my heart simply ached with love for him. Almost as if seeing him fallible made him all the more endearing to me. I guess I am just a proud parent.
As my mind was fixated on all of the above a new thought occurred to me...God is a proud parent too.
The gospel of John, chapter 1 verse 12 reads: " But to all that believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God."(NLT) As Christ followers we became God's children the day we believed and accepted Him. And God, as a parent, watches us as we go through our lives much like we watch our children here on earth. He is deeply disappointed when we fail to trust Him, and righteously proud when we do His will. When we mess up His heart aches too. But, no matter what, He loves us. Unconditionally and completely. He wants us to achieve the best He has for us. I am so thankful that my Father in heaven loves me. I pray that every time that I look upon my sons with love in my heart that I remember that I am loved too...by a wonderfully merciful Father that never sleeps.

Ain't God amazing? (Part II)

Had a crazy weird dream last night. Not 12 clowns riding a unicycle in the rain crazy weird...more like waking up very disturbed crazy weird. I won't divulge the details of the dream but, it was reoccurring in that I dreamt part 1, woke up, went back to sleep only to dream part 2. I actually didn't remember too much details except the part that disturbed me the most...naturally. But, here is the thing...I was doing my reading this a.m. and was reading Genesis, chapter(s) 40 and 41. You remember them don't you? Where Pharaoh has two disturbing dreams and Joseph becomes the most influential man in Egypt after he interprets those same dreams? Well, reading that only helped me realize that God is so amazing in that He still chooses to speak to us, on occasion, through our dreams...
Now, do I think that God was giving me a vision? Yeah, I do...what is so cool is that He not only gave me a vision but He helped me to understand it as well. Amazing ain't He? I think so....

My "Duh" moment...

Hey! Have you ever experienced a "Duh" moment with God? I just went through one recently. For about 2 weeks now it seemed like God had just stopped talking to me. Oh, man...I have been MISERABLE! What made it worse is that I had no idea as to why God had hidden His face from me. But you know what? Our God is so good that He reveals stuff to us in the most subtle of ways...not to make us feel bad, not to demean us...but to make us say, "Well, Duh!".
You see, I had this heart condition. No, not that kind of heart condition...but, I did have something going on in my heart that wasn't good...wasn't even close to being a God thing. So, what God did was to hide His face from me for a short time in order to draw me closer to Him. I had to really go before Him and search my heart to see what it was that I had inside me. It was only through that process that I was able to see what God saw all along...something stinky in my heart! Once I saw it, well it was like the sun shining through dark clouds...it was a moment of clarity (how 'bout that EZ37!). It was a moment in which I had to sit back, smile and say, "Wow, God...so that's what is going on! Duh!"
Sometimes it takes something drastic to happen in our lives in order to make us sit up and take notice. Nothing is more drastic than to have our Lord and Savior give us the "silent treatment" for a short period. Now, does that mean that God left me or forgot about me...NO WAY MAN! I am too special! What it does mean though, is that sometimes in order to see more clearly, or at least to better appreciate the view, we have to be blinded...then, as we try so very desperately to see through the fog and the darkness, God gives us a subtle, gentle vision...a vision that brings everything into focus, a vision that opens our hearts and convicts us...a vision that makes us say, "Duh!"