I love you, O LORD, my strength. Psalms 18:1| NIV84

God is a personal God. I mean, He is vividly and actively involved in each of our lives. Sometimes we don’t recognize His presence or acknowledge that He is there, but He is always there. One cannot escape His love and there has been many times where the invisible God has made Himself visible to me. Sometimes it’s through revelation knowledge about a certain subject within the Bible, and other times it’s the refreshing wind on a hot summer day or even rain falling gently upon my face like tender kisses. No matter how He chooses, He makes Himself known that He is there beside me and it blesses my heart beyond measure.

As I grow older, I place these special moments with the Lord God inside my heart and deeply cherish them. I pull them out from time to time and enjoy knowing that my Heavenly Father truly cares about every aspect of my life and all the tiny details. I don’t normally request things for myself of the Lord, at least, not as much as I did in years past. It seems anymore, I petition the Lord on the behalf of others. I guess I could say that I have become content in knowing or better yet, trusting, that God has everything under control, and all is well even if everything is falling apart in regard to myself personally.

Most people do not like getting older, especially women, but I do. Age has brought upon me some maturity and had I not gone through certain things, I wouldn’t have the relationship I have with the Lord. If I could choose between yesterday and today, I would choose the present.

In mid-October when the grey skies and rain started coming sooner than usual, I looked outside feeling kind of disappointed. I then sighed and quietly pleaded with the Lord,

“Please don’t let the grey come so soon this year. I mean, look at all those trees. I haven’t seen them this beautiful in so many years and now the rain is taking away all of their beauty. Can you please give me one day, this weekend, where the sun shines with blue skies? Please…” I paused for a moment and smiled while looking out the window up at the grey colored sky, “…and can you make it warm? Like 60°F? Oh, it would be most wonderful to feel the warm sun one more time… and thank you. Thank you so much for all that you do. You are so wonderful.”

Just so you know, I don’t watch the news, nor do I pay any attention to the weather forecast. I learned many years ago that weather forecasters cannot accurately tell the weather more than one day ahead… even with all of the quadruple Doppler systems in place! They like to drum up emotions and all kinds of nonsense, so I don’t normally pay any attention to it.

Would you know that God so graciously provided a day that weekend (a Sunday) with clear skies and warm temperatures? The high got up to around 65°F. It was so wonderful and amazing. I took full advantage and spent the day outside going all around town taking pictures of the beautiful foliage. I know it’s trivial to ask for such simplistic things, but somehow there are times when I need to.

I hold these times very close to my heart, they are most precious and incredibly beautiful. They demonstrate the love between the Creator and the created. I am merely a woman and nothing more, but my soul is of unlimited value and within it possesses a longing for my Beloved. I am a child of the Living God, my Heavenly Father, the Lover of my soul. He loves me more than anyone ever will and with a faithfulness that has no end. I am both awed and humbled by this truth and more times than not I don’t even know how to respond.

I offer Him my life in return. When He shows me something I should do, I do it out of love for Him. He is my Loving Father and His ways lead to freedom. Living in this world can be burdensome and so can the distractions within. At times my body is a burden and all of its physical and emotional demands a nuisance. I long to shed this body to live with God forever without limitation. I long to dance with my Beloved on the streets of gold, but while I wait for that glorious day, I will close my eyes and imagine dancing with Him in the kitchen remembering and cherishing the moments of simplistic prayers answered in demonstration of His sweet Love. I will bask in the remembrance of that splendid sunny day in October when the sun shone down warming my face, keeping me cozy all winter long.

I long for the Lover of my soul, for my Beloved to come take me Home so nothing stands between us, neither time nor distance. Oh, how I long for my Lord.