Communication

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The other day, my friend looked at me and stated, "I don't know how you've gotten this far--you're very naive".

This may sound negative but it isn't. It's just a statement of fact, and this isn't the first person to tell me this. I think about it myself, often. I tend to bury my head in the sand a lot, deliberately, but I know that it is also due to something else, Someone else. What seems to shock some people more than anything else is the fact that not only am I very naive, an innocent of sorts, is the fact that I am also rather proud of it.

Yes, I said proud of it. If I could relate to you the things I've done, the things I've seen, the things I've willingly been a party to, the life I've led--well, enough said. We've all been there in our own ways. Yet, somehow, I've escaped the jadedness that is an inherent part of these things, even after they are long over. You must know that I am not naive at all, not really. I know things. I lived things. Still do.

Yet I wake up every morning full of joy, full of expectation, full of the knowledge that I have a God who loves me. God. Loves. Me. What an awesome
thought. What an awesome God.

No, I prefer to think of myself as one who has been sheltered and protected, even while in the mess I was making, by my Loving, Living Father. I, who deserve nothing, have been given everything. I, who brought shame, and still do at times, to God, was scooped up and held gently and sent out again, remarkably whole. I am priviledged to be called a child of the King. We all are. He restored my innocence to me, and I am forever grateful and thankful for it.

We live in a world full of hatred and strife, divisions are made in every regard, even in God's own church, yet He still watches over us. We also live in a world full of His children, trying to put the love in front of the hatred. My life is lived in such a way that I carry Him with me, and I am daily stunned that someone like Him would even want to claim someone like me. Why? I am awful, nothing, a tiny speck of dust. Yet, He tells me that I am not. I have been set apart for Him. I am loved, cared for, and cared about. Me. YOU.

We spend a lot of time and effort as writers trying to capture Him, trying to show Him, and in reality, we can't. We aren't able to. Not fully. How could we? Yet, we all know Him, even if we can't fully explain everything. This love spills over and out--it's impossible not to share, not to try to share, when you have it. We are nothing, yet something. He is something, and EVERYTHING.

God is love? Of course He is! And so much more. I am thanking Him for His sheltering of me and my life, for blinding me to the things He knows I can't handle, and for faithfully pointing out to me the things He knows I must. He is my friend, the best friend I have ever had, or will ever have, and the only friend I really need. Where people have failed me, God never has. I may not have wanted to hear what He had to tell me, I may not have liked the answers I was given, but I still heard Him. He never gives up on me. He is so patient with us! I can't even be that patient with my own offspring!

See? I am trying to capture the uncapturable! Oh, that every person would see and hear what I have seen and heard! What wondrous things we have all been priviledged with!

At time, I want to climb up on my roof and shout, "Hey! I have something to tell you! Listen up!" Other times, I want to crawl under the covers on my bed and hide because I didn't do what I should have, because I did or said the wrong thing again, or because I did the very thing I shouldn't, all the while knowing it was wrong.

We are such a complex people. We have a very forgiving Lord. Thank you, Jesus!

God bless all the innocents and the naive. Keep us all sheltered from some of the storms. You're just so amazing!

"Amazing Love, how can it be? That you, my King,
would die for me?" (song lyrics).

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