I Love Our God

I love our God.  I love the variety, diversity, individuality and creativity with which He has made everything including us.  I am told that no two snowflakes are exactly alike.  I’m not sure about that but I am pretty certain that no two people are exactly alike.  I love that.  And I love that even though we all have different temperaments, likes and dislikes, hobbies and habits, that God loves us just as we are.  So much so that He determined to save us in the most unspeakable way from our sinful plight. 

If you do not know this love from God, love that is strong enough that He chose to die, If you do not know this love then leave this story and go read “Closer to Jesus”; Look over to your right, see the link there under the heading “A Cross Roads”.  Check it out; You can always come back.

As I was saying. I love our God.  He says that we men are responsible to teach our children to love God too.  Regarding God’s statutes I am supposed to and you are supposed to “teach them diligently unto thy children, thou and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”  I work hard at this but I often drop the ball that’s why this story means so much to me.

My son and I were recently with a group of men and their sons at the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Topsham, Maine for a father/son overnighter.  We had been meeting with these dear folks monthly for nearly a year.  We were planning to spend the night in a roughed out clearing in the woods, a place where one of their church men had ‘given’ to the group so that we can make a camp meeting place.  Because of incoming torrential rains in the forecast we spent the night in the church instead.  We had pizza, father and son time, played ping-pong, and watched a movie I had never seen before. “Sergeant York” We both liked the movie very much.  Thank you Dan O. for sharing that.

For the night I slept on some couch cushions in the foyer of their church.  My son slept on the cushionless couch.  I liked that spot because not far from us, over the entry to their sanctuary was a sign that read “Prepare to Worship” and what I liked about that was I was aware of the sign above the door that you see as you leave the sanctuary that reads “PREPARED to serve” If we worship God rightly in our churches we then are amply prepared to serve God and others in the world.

In the morning after a small breakfast, a little fellowship, and some father/son time we left Cornerstone to drive to the camp site.  Now when I said it is a roughed out clearing in the woods I had no idea how rough.  There were fallen branches and trees everywhere.  Left over from logging work from years past.  I’m not sure even where we would have slept had it not rained.  Matt B., one of the dads, cleared a spot and started a fire.  The rest of us commenced to clearing land.  We got much done.  It was fun and it went quickly.  It is going to make a beautiful camp site where we will have many times of fellowship and father/son relationship builder opportunities.

While we were working I slipped away from the group to get alone with the Lord.  I walked down over the hill I was setting a site on, down a short ways into the wood to a nearby stream, and found a nice seat-like rock next to a small waterfall where I could go to pray.  I sat there and prayed for quite some time. It was a very needful break.

Later I saw one of the men pull his son aside.  I’m not sure why but I thought, “I need to pull my boy aside and talk with him.”  I said, “Come here buddy.”  He looked up curiously. “Come with me.”  We walked and talked. I took him to that spot by the stream.  I told him, “If when we are here, and you can’t find me, this is where I’ll be”  “I’ll be here, thinking, praying, and reading.”

After a while of quietly listening to the water rush over the falls he said “Dad, can I pray, I’d like to pray.”  I said, “Sure, Go ahead buddy.”  And then he prayed a very grown-up prayer.  I was impressed, I was proud.

As we left that spot and quietly walked together back to where the men were working my boy said, “Dad.” Then there was a long pause. He said “I love our God.”  And my heart leaped in my chest for joy.  I was over-joyed.  Then I calmly said, “That’s good buddy.  That makes your dad happy.”  I wanted to shout for joy but I contained myself.  What an awesome God we serve!

If we take time to spend with our sons father’s, and with our daughters, some of the love that we have for God is going to ‘rub off’.

“He must increase, WE must decrease!”

I love our God!