Breeze

I was sitting in our sun room a few nights ago, my laptop on . . . my lap, and I was deep in thought, writing away on my next blog post about Jesus. Suddenly a cool, refreshing breeze came wafting in through the open windows. My writing stopped, my attention was diverted and I closed my eyes, enjoying the cool breeze as it flowed over my face and arms. That was nice.  It was soothing and comforting and . . . it was exactly what I needed.

Have you ever had something like that happen to you? I'm not talking specifically about a cool refreshing breeze, but just "something" in life that happened exactly when you needed it to. Like maybe you were thinking about someone and suddenly the phone rang and it was them. Or maybe when you were in a certain mood and then a song came on the radio and it was the most absolutely perfect song for the way you were feeling.

Moments like that are awesome! Those moments are like answers to unspoken prayers.

When I first came to believe in Jesus, it was one of those "A-Ha!" moments. It was very obvious and it was very sudden, like a light bulb going on. There have been other times in my life, although not quite as dramatic and life-changing, where something notable and unexplainable has happened.

I remember a time when I was going through some self-doubt about a decision I had made. I knew my decision was the right one. I knew I was following God's will. Yet there was this doubt, an uncertainty about the decision. Was it the right thing? What if I had made a mistake? Suddenly, like a cool, summer breeze, I felt a tap on my shoulder and a young friend opened her arms and gave me a hug. It was almost as if God himself had reached down and delivered that hug himself, reassuring me that, yes, I was correctly following His leading.

Last night I was talking to a friend who had been feeling kind of down. She told me how a breeze had cmme in through her window this past week and rustled a piece of paper that had by lying there, face down on her bedroom floor. She picked it up and read it. It was an encouraging letter from a friend, right when she needed to be encouraged. Something had suddenly appeared for her to read, right when she needed to read it.

God's Word is like that. I can be reading through the scriptures and suddenly a verse just jumps out at me. Maybe it's a verse I have read dozens of times before but THIS time it suddenly has new meaning. Maybe it's the situation. Maybe it's the mood we're in. Maybe . . . it's God.

Some people might say, "Oh, it's just a coincidence. That happens to me all the time." But I wonder. Are those times when we encounter "coincidence," are they really God-incidents in disguise?

Our God is a super natural being who thinks and does things that are WAY beyond what our infant-like minds can comprehend. Take creation for example. Must humans cannot seem to grasp the fact that our universe was created in six days, including all the accessories like plants and animals. Boom! Just like that. We have to figure things out for ourselves. We do this instead of simply believing that God did all these things by Himself. We humans tend to limit our thinking to what we know and make up theories about what we don't. I simply choose to believe in God.

Can God make a piece of paper move with the wave of His hand if He wanted to? Sure. Can He impress on someone that another person might need a hug? Absolutely. Can God make animals line up two-by-two and get on an ark? My God can! Can God lead his people to the shores of the Red Sea and still provide a way to save them . . . by splitting the sea in two? Do I even need to answer that?

God can do anything. That's fairly obvious. The real question that confounds us is, "Why?" Why would a God who is so big and powerful and so way beyond us in every category imaginable, why would God care enough to even think twice about us? The answer is actually quite simple. He loves us.

"16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." - John 3:16 (NKJV)

"37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:37-39 (ESV)

God's love is so much more than we can possibly fathom so why even try to understand it. Accept it. Receive it. Embrace it. Live it.

"7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

19 We love because he first loved us." - 1 John 4:7-19

Our God by Chris Tomlin