in His image

most monday nights i meet with an amazing group of teenage girls. this is what we're going to discuss this week...

What is your favorite love story? think about it for just a few minutes. what's the best part? how much does he love her? does he rescue her? steal her away from someone who doesn't deserve her? women can just think about these for a minute and smile, and swoon and maybe even want to cry...

God has written us the greatest love story of all.
let's start at the very beginning. a very good place to start... Genesis 1:27 tells us that we, men & women, were created in His image. Why was woman created, anyway? Eve was the last thing that God made. Was she an after-thought..? After all, God & Adam seemed to be having a pretty good thing going there. Things seemed perfect. But God is all knowing, and Genesis 2:18 says that "it was not good for man to be alone." God knew, that men NEEDED women. Wow...
what is the most beautiful place, most beautiful thing you've ever seen? the beach, the mountains, a butterfly... God made all of that, and yet something was missing. a woman.
women are relational to their very core. how do women most often define themselves, introduce themselves? i am thier daughter, her sister, thier friend, her best friend... and much more.

so, if we are made in His image and we are relational, then God is too. God is not a man. I have grown up believing that God was male. Not because anyone told me that, not to anyone's fault at all, but God has been presented to me in a way that focused on His strength and power and might. it made me think at the very least i have felt that God is at least MORE man than He is woman. but He is not. man nor woman. just as God is strong like a man, i firmly believe, that God loves like women love. That is the gift of "His image" that He gave to us. Yes, Jesus loves me, for the bible tells me so: in psalm 24:5, luke 12:21, 1john 1:9,romans 5:11 and so many more. these clearly show us that our most important relationship of all is with Him.
the entire bible is a beautiful story of God's unconditional love for us. He made a way for us to have a relationship with Him, even though we don't deserve it, through the death burial and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. Women, think about how badly you wanted a boyfriend, wanted a husband, longed for children (or still do...) The whole bible exists to tell you that God wants a loyal & loving relationship with you more than you want one from any man. Wrap your mind around that.
God loves you more than your daddy.
God loves you more than your momma.
God loves you more than your best friend.
God will always love you and want a relationship with you even more than your own husband and children.
When I take the time to really think about that, it is almost unbelievable.

The bible is clear that God wants us to want Him, more than we want anything else. But we don't... We continue to do our own thing and wonder, "why....?" Mark 12:29-30 or Matthew 22:36-38 tell us the greatest commandment in all of the bible is to love Him. and in Jeremiah 31:3, even though we don't deserve it, He promises that He will love us with an everlasting love.

What does every woman you know want more than anything else? True Love. Its why we read love stories and watch love stories. Why we cry when they finally get together in the end. why, because we want that kind of love.

And He stands right here, every day, to give it us.

because it's funnier

before i begin today's tale of woe, i would like to publicly apologize to my mother. i have thought i wouldn't write this story, partly because she raised me to be a lady. and i like to think, overall, that she did a wonderful job. but this lil diddy is pure & simple bathroom humor. why? because the things that people DON'T like to talk about are WAY funnier than the norm. so, here goes nothin.

this past saturday we had a beautiful concert at our local high school. before it began, i went in to the restroom. i giggled and shook my head because i remembered what happened the last time i was in there...
picture it. it was christmastime. excitement was in the air. the evening of the 5th grade play. the kids were so excited. everyone was looking forward to the break and time with family. kids were nervously excited. i was so happy to have on a new outfit. (oh, wait-dear frequenters of this blog, i really don't shop that much, but now i'm remembering a pig-wranglin' outfit...) but anyway, this beautiful shrimp colored twin set had matching jewelry: a long, trendy necklace and "ear-bobs." the outfit notes will be important later, hold the phone.
i can't remember why exactly, but my stomach wasn't feeling its finest (sorry, again, but i'm in this far-i'm obligated.) so, the need to go to the restroom was getting greater while i was making my third trip in from the car carrying a microphone stand, the programs, and the Boomwhackers in a large bucket. the need to "go" got so bad, in fact, that i realized i had begun to sweat (you know the feeling, the gotta go now but can't go yet feeling. ugh i can feel it now just describing it, it's oddly a lot like having a fever when you're really, really sick...) i dropped the large bucket outside the door and bolted in.
i sat...
i began...
i breathed out...
i noticed mud on my high heel...
i leaned over to wipe it off...
as i did, the next events all happened so fast that i hope you will read the next sentences as fast as you can, for that is how it was. ready? GO!

my keys, which were in my lap, slid off into the bowl, automatic flush activated. i panicked. i screamed out loud, "CRAP!" (no pun intended at ALL) without hesitation i spun around, shoved my right hand into the bowl, reaching for my keys and catching the very end of my honda key. i held on for dear life while the automatic flusher worked against me, ooooooh! i was gonna lose 'em, i just knew it. i would have to find a ride home, and those keys with the lock things on them are like $100, right? or more? and it's almost christmas.... that thing felt as if it would NEVER stop flushing. finally, i jerked my keys free, straight up into the air, shook them off and...
(slowly......) it was then that i realized that my brand new cashmere twin sweater sleeve was soaked in poo-infested h2O and that the long trendy necklace, now bouncing again on my upper stomach was also covered in and sprinkling me with, yup...crap water. p-yuck.
how the Lord let me get through this whole ordeal without a soul entering that restroom i'll never know, but i am truly grateful. still shaking from the nerves of almost losing my keys, i got it together, rinsed off my sleeve, removed and rinsed off my necklace. i dried everything as best i could, i looked at myself in the mirror, shook my hair a little as if to shake the whole experience off of me, held my head high and walked out of the restoom, picked up the huge bucket, and starting saying "hello" to the families and friends...who will be the north pole star? hee hee...