Journal of Love

We just celebrated Valentine's Day here in the United States.  I don't know how many of my readers in other countries actually celebrate this day, but it is definitely a huge money-maker here.  Flowers are sent, candies are gifted, dinners are prepared, and little notes of love are passed between people.  I wonder how many times we forget about the greatest love note we have ever received?  I began to think on this as I considered something I heard someone share about how they kept the love alive in their marriage of over thirty years together.  She spoke of how several years prior, they had begun the process of writing journal notes to each other.  Some very short - others with more content.  They have two journals - one for him to write in and the other for her.  Hers is really for him to read - his for her.  They don't write in it everyday, but there are some weeks when a note is left daily, others when maybe one a week says it all.  They leave the journal out where the other will see it - hers is usually found next to his favorite chair, hers in the kitchen.  As each discovers the latest note, there is something more - a legacy of notes.  In the toughest times in their marriage, they have often returned to the journal of notes, recounting all the tremendous memories of these moments.  It made me think about the "journal" of love notes we have been given by the lover of our soul - God.  Any time we need to recount his love for us - we can just go there.  Today, I'd like to just share some "love notes" from God.  I pray you will just allow them to speak to your heart as they have mine.

If God hadn’t been there for me, I never would have made it.  The minute I said, “I’m slipping, I’m falling,” your love, God, took hold and held me fast.  (Psalm 94:17-18 MSG)  I wonder how many times God is right beside us and we don't even recognize him there?  Yet, when we begin to stumble, we become so totally aware of his presence - by the strength of the arm which catches hold of us and pulls us to safety once again.

I love you,God— you make me strong. God is bedrock under my feet, the castle in which I live, my rescuing knight. My God—the high crag where I run for dear life, hiding behind the boulders, safe in the granite hideout.  (Psalm 18:1-2 MSG)  Bedrock under our feet - suggests we have reliable ground upon which we stand.  A castle to live in - this speaks to me of the vastness of his love for us.  The crag in the rocks - not only a place of hiding, but of secret growth - for the crag often has a growth all its own.

But me he caught—reached all the way from sky to sea; he pulled me out Of that ocean of hate, that enemy chaos, the void in which I was drowning. They hit me when I was down, but God stuck by me. He stood me up on a wide-open field; I stood there saved—surprised to be loved!  (Psalm 18:16-19 MSG)  One of the most awesome parts of being loved is the ability of the other to keep the element of surprise in the relationship.  This goes for God, too.  He delights in surprising those he loves and calls his own.

Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life.  (Psalm 23:6 MSG)  Have you ever been pursued?  If you have, you know the delight of the "chase".  There is something else here, though.   His "chasing" is continual - every day of our lives - he pursues us.  Not just on some special holiday - but each and every day!

For God’s Word is solid to the core; everything he makes is sound inside and out. He loves it when everything fits, when his world is in plumb-line true. Earth is drenched in God’s affectionate satisfaction.  (Psalm 33:4-5 MSG)  Solid to the core - nothing about God's love is "out of place" or "misaligned".  It is true "plumb"!  

Going through the motions doesn’t please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you. I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love don’t for a moment escape God’s notice.  (Psalm 51:16-17 MSG)  All we have to offer in this relationship is heart-shattered lives which are so earnestly seeking to know love and to be loved.  It is this very heart condition which moves God's heart - capturing his attention, consuming his heart, and moving him to embrace us.

Your love, God, is my song, and I’ll sing it! I’m forever telling everyone how faithful you are. I’ll never quit telling the story of your love— how you built the cosmos and guaranteed everything in it. Your love has always been our lives’ foundation, your fidelity has been the roof over our world.   (Psalm 89:1-2 MSG)  There is no greater love song than the song sung in heaven when a shattered heart is restored.  There is no greater song heard in our own hearts than when God's fingers strum a melody of worship from within our lives.  Love embraced soon becomes love expressed - never stop telling the story of his love.  This is what this couple was doing - retelling each other the story of their deep and growing love for each other.  The moments will quickly pass us by - in taking just the short moments to get into God's journal of love, we can be reminded of his deep and ever growing love for us!  We have many love notes from God - I wonder just how many love notes we have taken time to write back to him?  Just sayin!