THE TETHERING PLACE

I love the Christmas season… and one of my favorite things about it is that my mailbox becomes a cornucopia of greeting cards! Beautiful photos of friends and family, lyrical notes, delightful updates… and they all get strung across our entry hall and remain there for the year. These cards remind me of treasured people near and far – remind me to pray for them or reach out to them when a face catches my attention on a random Tuesday in June.

We received one lovely package from dear friends in Montana; in it we found a hand knit hat for Finn, gold foiled prints, and her letter {which is always one of my favorites and the inspiration for this post.} She quoted the following excerpt from Ann Voskamp’s Advent book for kids “Unwrapping the Greatest Gift”, and the words were too good to not pass along.

So as you rest momentarily before racing out the door, or perhaps as you sit in the passenger seat on the way to the in-laws, or maybe even at the end of the day after the presents have been wrapped, or torn apart or there is much to be done or much to clean, I pray these words wash over you and bring you peace and the reminder that there is one who never takes His eye off of you, who never stops praying for you, who can’t help but think about you, and who can’t wait to speak to you.

Merry Christmas!

You are loved.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

When we’ve fallen, and when we’re lost, God comes with one question. Not the question,”Why did you do that?” Not the question, “What did you do wrong?” The very first God-question of the Old Testament, of the whole Bible, is a love question howling out of God’s heart; “Where are you?”

God’s love never stops looking for you, trying to find you and gently draw you back close to Him. Because of His unconditional, unbeatable , unfailing, unwrappable love, your God refuses to give up on you. Your God looks for you when you’re lost, Your God calls out for you when you’re ashamed and broken and hurting. God doesn’t run down the rebel. God doesn’t strike down the sinner. God doesn’t flog the failure. Whenever you fail, whenever you fall short, whenever you sin, your God  whispers to you with a love that wraps around you like a gentle arm: “Wherever you are, I will always come find you. Whatever you’ve done, I will always keep looking for you until My eyes see you, till My hands of healing reach you, till I can hold you close to My heart.”

No matter what the day holds, no matter how the season of your life unfolds, God holds you and enfolds you. And what was the very first question of the New Testament of the Bible? The very first question asked in all of the New Testament of the Bible was that of Wise men asking everyone after Jesus’ birth, “Where is He?” Really wise men and women never stop looking for God. And because your really wise God is love, He never stops looking for you. 

At one wooden tree in the Garden of Eden, we fell for a lie that God didn’t love us, and we fell away from God and got lost. And at one wooden cross near the Garden of Gethsemane, God found us and stretched out His arms and proved forever and always and no matter what that He loves us with an unconditional, unbeatable unfailing, unwrappable love. 

~Ann Voskamp