Consider Lily Articles Gallery

Love Story With God by Jessica Sheets I just finished reading a terrible book. No, it was really a good book, but it had a terrible ending! Why do people do that? Don't we read books to step out of reality and into "happily ever after?" Anyway, we read a lot about these picture-perfect romances...where everything works out, and it leaves us with a fuzzy-warm feeling. But every once in a while, we read a book or watch a movie about a really deep, intense, passionate love. And that's what this book was. My heart just longed for them to be together, and when they weren't, it left me with the gut-wrenching feeling that something was terribly wrong. I lay in bed for hours after finishing the book with several different thoughts going through my head. First, I thought about that intense, passionate, "can't live without you" kind of love and how that is what we all long for. And I also thought about how that is only a tiny portion of how God loves us. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Eph. 3:18-19, "(and I pray that you) may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses all knowledge..." That pretty much covers every dimension from which God could love us. It is such an "out of this world" love...it's deep and strong and greater than we could ever imagine. The second thing I couldn't stop thinking about was that the gut-wrenching feeling of not being with the one you love. And suddenly, my mind went to Garden of Eden...the PERFECT love story. It was an intense, passionate, can't live without you, perfect love between God and man. And then sin happened, and they were "separated." And for a while, it looked as if "happily ever after" just wasn't going to happen. How God must have hurt! He was separated from His beloved...the one He loved far more than the greatest romance writers of our day could ever put into words! Now, I know we get into sticky ground here trying to understand the sovereignty of God; He knew we would sin and put that rift between us before the story ever started. I'm not going to try to understand all the theology of that. I just know that it broke His heart way more than we know. But fortunately, our love affair with God takes a twist...there was something He could do to change the story! What seemed like the end was actually just the beginning, and, when the time was right, He made a way to restore things. When it seemed like "death" had taken over our character, He brought us back to life! Not in a soap opera "he really wasn't dead all these years" kind of way. It was a miraculous, totally selfless, "let me send my Son to pay the price for your sins" kind of restoration. And the invitation that He offers to us now...an intimate, passionate, walking side by side in the Garden kind of relationship...is enough to sweep any girl off of her feet. I know we often think that the Nicholas Sparks kind of love story is the one thing that we need. But I've been married for over 8 years (to the man of my dreams), and I know that even he will never fill the deepest needs of my heart. The way in which we all long to be loved is something that only the "Lover of our souls" can give. It is so much more than a "going to church, read my Bible, and be a good person" relationship. It's walking and hanging out with Him all the time...and asking Him daily to show us a little more today just how much He loves us! I love the Chris Daughtry song What About Now. Read some of the words here, and try to shift your focus from your most recent crush to this being your relationship with God: "What about now? What about today? What if you're making me more than I was meant to be? What if our love never went away? What if it's lost behind words we could never find? Baby, before it's too late...what about now?" God is waiting and longing to start showing you who He is and how MUCH He loves you...so what about now?