Last month I wrote here in this space about all the great stuff coming up in the next month or so as we prepare for Christmas. I gave you a list of upcoming opportunities to worship and fellowship and learn in class. I warned you not to get your calendars full before you scheduled some of these things in there first. Unfortunately, I forgot to include one thing.
Stop. Schedule to stop. Schedule some time to be still and just be with God.
I was sitting here thinking about what to write for this month’s article and was coming up blank. My mind was swimming a bit with all of the stuff that I have coming due in the next five weeks or so and I was having trouble zeroing in on one thing to say here. That’s when I heard a song come on the radio that cut through the noise.
This is probably going to sound cheesy to some of you, but I love the song “Longer” by Dan Fogelberg. It is so simple but it speaks to me as if God himself was speaking through the lyrics. “Longer than there’ve been fishes in the oceans, higher than any bird ever flew, longer than there’ve been stars up in the heavens, I’ve been in love with you.” All of the sudden, in the middle of the chaos going on in my head, this message came in so clear that everything else just went away: God loves me. He loves me deeper than the ocean, truer than any tree ever grew, and stronger than any mountain cathedral. He loved me before I ever knew him and He will love me beyond the end of time. He knows all my faults, all my failures, all my problems and still he loves me. Even more He wants to spend every minute of every day with me. You know what? Absolutely nothing compares to that. You know what else? He loves you that way too.
Imagine the love Mary felt as she held the baby Jesus in her arms. God longs to hold you in His arms in the same way. So sometime during this month, in the midst of the chaos, stop for a moment and let Him.