Friday, April 13, 2012

Live under God's waterfall of love

Last night I began reading Max Lucado's A Love Worth Giving, which has so far turned out to be a wonderful read. The book is all about seeing God's perfect example of love as the reason why we should also seek to give that love away to others, and especially God, in return.

Lucado subtitles the book, "Living in the Overflow of God's Love." Isn't that a beautiful picture?

There's this absolutely breathtaking hike with a surprisingly beautiful stream, pond, and collection of waterfalls at the top of it in Western Colorado, about 30 minutes or so before you hit Glenwood Springs on whichever main highway goes straight across Colorado (I'm terrible with highway/interstate numbers). I hiked with some of my family back when I was in middle school, but when I have to think of the most beautiful nature I've ever seen, Hanging Lake still comes to mind first. It's breathtaking, absolutely the most riveting, God-glorifying thing I have seen. Oh, I wish I could take you all there right now! If I could live near there for the rest of my life, I would be so content. Unfortunately, I'm in Sioux Center and don't have any plans to visit Colorado for at least another six months or so. Instead, I'll try to make you feel and envision what I currently am...

Okay. So, imagine you're standing at the bottom of a waterfall, not underneath it, just watching the water rush down, crash into the rocks at the bottom, and continue flowing out from there. It's a gorgeously sunny summer day and you're standing barefoot in the shallow pond that's been created by the overflow of the waterfall. You're wading in that water, letting it rush over your feet. As you near waterfall, you're getting wetter and wetter until you're finally standing directly underneath it. You're soaked, drenched, saturated, and so incredibly joyful. Now you're jumping, skipping, dancing, and singing at the top of your lungs as you smile into the crisp, refreshing water that streams down around you. Beautiful, refreshing, and--if you're reading this on a hot summer day--I bet this is making you want to go jump in a pool and experience a little taste of what I just described. Are you feeling awesome.. amazing.. incredible.. spectacular? I hope you are because I sure am! Seriously, I think I got chills.

Now that you have that feeling and image in mind, know that that waterfall isn't actually water. Instead, it's God's love. God's amazing, everlasting, beautiful love that will always be more refreshing and be able to fill you with more joy than any gorgeous waterfall ever will. This is God's amazing love reserved only for those who He's chosen to be His children and followers. If that's you, this love is for YOU! If that's not you, please pray seriously about accepting God's free gift of love. Ah. It's so so SO wonderful. Close your eyes. Let God's love rush down around you. Hear it crashing on the ground beneath you. Feel it roll down your body and stream over your feet as it overflows. Do you see it streaming away from you? Here's where you come in! Let that love stream. Let it stream from you to everyone around you. Let everyone you encounter feel God's love.

At Hanging Lake, there's also this crazy rock that shoots a stream of water out from the top of a hill and into the little lake that's also fed by a couple waterfalls. If I remember right, no one can really explain why that water keeps coming out of the rock, but it simply doesn't run dry. The same is true with God's love that's flowing all over you. God's love does not run out. Share it. Spread it around. Give it, live it, love, love, LOVE! Let God's overflow of love ceaselessly overflow because it will never run out. Let everyone around you feel that refreshing love as it saturates them as you're already saturated.

Praise God for His unfailing, abundant love!

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