It’s the middle of the night. I’m wide awake–can’t go back to sleep. I try counting sheep, but my mind is too busy for that. I start to notice the individuality of each big woolly creature as it jumps over the fence, and I wonder which one fathered Mary’s little lamb. Not a fruitful (or sleep-inducing) line of thought.
Then I fall into a conversation with God.
Maybe not exactly a conversation, more a sitting-together quietly, enjoying each other’s company, like old friends on a porch swing communing silently, just being together. And after a few minutes, the sheer wonder of this moment hits me.
The God of the Universe, the Almighty, the Creator of all things, Who was and is and is to come .. is willing to slice out a piece of Eternity to spend with me. The eternal Word is willing to have a word with pipsqueaky, pissant, decidely mortal me. Not only willing, but delighted. He calls me friend.
I think about the magnitude of that. About the grace, the extravagant love that fuels our relationship. And there are no words to describe the joy, the peace, the sense of right-being that flow over my spirit.
Mother Teresa reportedly once said, We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. I’m no Mother Teresa, but I’d like to amend that a little. God could not be found at all, had He not revealed Himself, emptied Himself, and, as my Grandma would have said, gone way out the way to reconcile us to Himself.
I can almost hear my Friend and my Redeemer speaking to me:
When your spirit’s overwhelmed with grace, then you know what I created you for. You think I’ve loved you all I can? Oh no…I’m gonna love you a whole lot more.
Then I fall asleep.
Ain’t God good?