Consider Lily Articles Gallery

Panama City Beach by Jessica Sheets About 10 years ago I was led to what is now one of my "top 10" favorite Bible verses. I received a letter from a friend who was working at a camp in Panama City Beach (suffering for the Lord). When I opened the envelope, sand fell out EVERYWHERE. I thought he was just rubbing it in because he was in Florida and I was in Nowhere, Mississippi. Then I saw the scripture reference at the bottom...Psalm 139:17-18. I looked up the verse, and this is what I read. "How great are your thoughts, oh Lord, how vast is the sum of them. Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand." Now try to imagine how many grains of sand there are in just one handful. Now imagine an entire beach...now all the beaches in the world. That’s a lot of sand! But that doesn’t even match the number of thoughts that God has for us! I have a 3 year old little boy, and I think he gives me just a TINY taste of the love of God. There is hardly a moment when I am not at least subconsciously thinking about him. And it’s not just because I need to keep him safe or out of trouble. It’s just what I do. I can’t not think about him. Even when he recently spent a week 4 hours away with his grandparents I was constantly thinking about him (probably even more than normal, if that’s possible). And that is just a portion of how it is with God. He can’t not think about us! When we are running around trying to get all of our stuff for the day done...He is thinking about us. When we are laughing and playing with our friends and family...He is thinking about us. When we are mad and frustrated and talking to Him is the last thing on our mind...He is thinking about us. Not only does He think about us, but He thinks good stuff about us. The Bible says he delights in us, and he rejoices over us with singing (see Zephaniah 3:17...another of my "top 10"). When we are lying in bed about to drift off for the day (or wishing we would drift off), He is singing us to sleep. Caleb (my 3 year old) almost always calls me back into his room about 5 minutes after we’ve said goodnight, and he says "just one more song." That tender, sweet, comforting love of a mother...we didn’t invent that. We are able to love and care for our children in that way because it is just a fraction of the love that God has given us. I believe that it will dramatically change our life when we have the correct view of who God is and how He thinks about us. There are so many "why’s" and "what-if’s" in our world today, and I will be the first to admit that I don’t know how it all fits together sometimes. But I do know (even when I act like I don’t) that I have a God that is taking care of me. The Bible says that He has every hair on my head numbered! And I have the thick hair "curse," so that’s a lot of numbering! But He knows us so well!! And if He knows us that well, don’t you think He is taking care of us! And, just like a good parent would do, He longs to comfort us, and laugh with us, and counsel us through the crises of life. He is thinking about us right now, and He just wants us to know and respond to that. One of my other favorite Panama City Beach stories was last summer when my family went there for vacation. I went to check in at our ocean view Holiday Inn Resort, only to discover that we had been "involuntarily upgraded" to a suite. We would have a double room with 2 private balconies (and a jacuzzi tub) on the 15 floor...the second nicest room in the entire hotel! I still remember standing there in the lobby as the guy pulled up my information on the computer. He chuckled to himself and said, "Well, you must know somebody." Well, I didn’t know anyone in the hotel, but I definitely know Somebody. I know Somebody who thinks about me constantly, loves me beyond words, and cannot wait to shower that love down on me. And you know Him, too!