40 day Pilgrimage of Prayer: My Father…

Over the last few years or so, I have had a desire to know a little something about my earthly father. He and my mother divorced when I was very young. We didn’t have any contact. My only connection to him was his name, just a name and well, his genetic line, but that’s pretty much the extent of it. I don’t want to know much about him… just a few little details about how he lived; his interests; preferences; if he enjoyed strong coffee in the quiet and stillness of the dawn, sipping contentedly while awaiting first light. Did his genetic building blocks give me a love for horses or music or my silly and annoying habit of making happy, nonsensical sounds that I sing under my breath throughout the day? Just wondering…

Even though my earthly father was not part of my life, my heavenly Father has been. I can’t remember a single day, in which I have not felt His presence. Even before I really knew God, He was always calling out to me… letting me know of His love and trying to get my attention … drawing me until Himself.

God wants us to know that He loves us, but even more than this, He desperately desires to show us who He truly is. We have so many strange and false machinations’ about him. We conjure up ideas that seem to provide a temporary satisfaction to the empty, aching, loneliness within or we believe ideas given to us by others who have never truly sought Him for themselves, fearing they would be changed by the encounter, changed in a bad way by spending time in His presence. Or we compare Him to our earthly fathers thinking He must be the same as whatever man we were given to play that role.

God is the perfect blend between pure love and pure justice. God’s name is Faithful, Righteous, Holy and He is. How can God be anything like what we suppose? God is the creator of all that is beautiful and good such as crisp, clean, clear waterfalls splashing joyfully down rock and stone… or twinkle stars born out of a sea of light that is vastly immense beyond what we think or can reach… the peaceful sound of the wind gently blowing boughs of bristly pines as we crunch, crunch, crunch the needles while passing under living canopy… or the melodious cry of a newborn, wiggly and wet from loves cocoon, placed into the anxiously awaiting, outstretched arms, deeply longing for first embrace.
God is God and being so is mysterious. We make up things trying to comprehend His vastness but without avail. He is the mystery in a bumblebee’s flight, gravity, wind, DNA and yet, He cares for us. He cares for you … for me and He calls to us. Did you know that God is calling to you? He calls in a still, small voice that we hear in our spirits. You may think that listening for God is wacky and I must be deluded and possibly certifiable but every morning, God calls out to you by saying, “Wake up, Dear One. It‘s morning and the first golden rays of sunrise are magnificently building into first lights crescendo announcing my new day… Taah Daaahhhhh! Will you enjoy it, my child? Will you remember my love in this glorious kaleidoscope colors?” Every day God creates a glorious masterpiece of beauty just for us and it is free for all, nothing is required to receive it. I don’t have to be smart enough, bold or brave enough, have money to pay for it. He gives freely to all.

“I created the mountains and the wind. I let humans know what I am thinking. I bring darkness at dawn and step over hills. I am the LORD God All-Powerful!” (Amos 4:13).

I am praying for you… the lost and lonely one who is wandering from this and that… longing to fill the deep and empty places inside you try to hide but won’t go away, no matter what is placed in that deep, hungry abyss residing within.

I am praying for you… eagerly seeking, desperately desiring intimacy with God but not wanting to let go of the things that hinder relationship.

I am praying for you… that you will see, truly experience a mysterious, spiritual moment in the sunrise and that it awakens something inside you, that you can’t explain, can’t rationalize but is profoundly glorious so much so, you can’t forget it.

I am praying for you…