They pee on you because they love you....

Our sweet Parker (almost 4) often comes down to our room in the middle of the night when something has woken him up.  I assume this is just a phase that he'll eventually grow out of and most nights I barely wake up when he climbs in between Kevin and I.  Last night he came down in his usual way and, snuggled and safe right where he wanted to be, he quickly fell back asleep.  He slept so deeply in fact that I woke up a short time later wet with urine.  And not my own.

I'd like to say this is the first time I've been peed on by a small child, but it's not.  Might not be the last.  There's also been vomit, poop, snot, ear wax and blood.  Not very glamorous, but I like to remind myself that to be so close to someone's grossness means you must also be in place of great importance to that person.  Because you don't just pee on anyone, you know.  You save that kind of stuff for the people you truly love and trust, the people you know will still love you in the morning.  (And also maybe ER personnel.)

Mark Klein spoke at our church this weekend about his near-death experiences surrounding his heart transplant a few years ago.  During his time in the hospital Mark says the Lord revealed glimpses of heaven to him on several occasions.  The most compelling, to me, was a glimpse of God himself from whom flowed "total and absolute acceptance".  Can you imagine that?  To be in the presence of someone who totally accepts you, loves you, takes pleasure in you just as you are?  It'd be enough to make me lose my bladder control all together.

Do you feel as confident in God's acceptance as that?  Because you should and so should the people around you.  If we're not witnessing in the kind of way that leads someone to anything but God's total and absolute acceptance and sovereignty then we are doing it wrong.  And if that's the message you're struggling to hear yourself, join me in prayer.  That God would continue to reveal His love for you, make His power known to you and His grace real for you.  And that you, being confident in all these things, would be changed forever. 

Love you, Parker.  Just the way you are.
   

XOXO....Kelly

The Wilderness

See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice.  Each will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.  Isaiah 32:1-2

This is "the wilderness"..... 

And during the lush season, mind you. 

This is the land through which David fled Saul, through which Christ fought temptation, the place where prophets trod.  This is where shepherd guard and lead their sheep. 

Do you know what the number one cause of death in the wilderness is?  Drowning from a flash flood.  The waters, when they come, rise and flow so quickly that if you don't know how to get up and out of the valley quick enough you drown.  That's if something doesn't eat you first.  It is a brutal, amazing thing to behold, the wilderness.

When I read these words from Isaiah last week I had a new appreciation for just what shelter, refuge, water and shadow meant to the prophet.  To endure in the reality of this landscape...these sort of things are like salvation.  It's no wonder this imagery is used so often in scripture.  Because when you round the top of a hill, the city behind you, and face this....

  

....you can imagine how good shelter would feel, how quenching water would be, how welcome would be the shade of a mighty rock.

But the words of Isaiah speak to more than just the terrain.  They speak so much to our calling as God's people. 

The world is a wilderness and the devil is everywhere.  Do you provide shelter?  Do your actions quench thirst?  Do your words provide shade?  In the glory and with the power of Christ in you, are you a refuge for His people?   

I think this is the point.  That the love of Christ dwells so deeply and fully within us that we, like a city on a hill, can not be unseen in it.  That the way we reach out to other people in His name is like a haven in the wilderness.  That we would stand out against the roughness instead of blend in as part of it. 

Let this be my prayer, Lord, that you would work in me and through me.  That I would help and not hinder.  Build up and not tear down.  Let me provide good things in your name and with the power of your Holy Spirit for those who need it most.  Remind me that we are in this wilderness together, God.  But with your power it will not overcome us. 

XOXO....Kelly