Saturday, October 10, 2009

Imagine The Possibility

Bridal Love vs Bridle Love ....
Think about that for just a moment.

Very different images aren't they? Having spent a couple of years around horses as a teen, I have seen the largest, most stubborn of horses controlled by a bridle. I remember riding a very strong willed horse and being coached, "don't let him get his head"...when you control a horse's head, you control his whole body.

That is not what God wants for us, He doesn't want to simply control us through our intellectual commitment to Him. He wants our heart, to the point that we give ourselves over completely to Him...knowing the fulfillment that is mutually ours in this loving relationship. He offers us Bridal love...passionate, tender, fulfilling, compete, eternal Bridal Love.

This is one of the truths that I am finally beginning to grasp through Shannon Ethridge's book "Completely His".

It's not a new concept to me, but in all these years, I have not really been able to grasp it . I got "saved" literally, at 10. All I knew is that Hell was real and I didn't want to go there. I then learned of commitment and servitude, good Biblical truths...but a very different level of relationship from the next stage which was seeing God as my Healthy Loving Father. That, for me was ground breaking. Though I have even sat under solid wonderful teaching on Jesus the Husbandman, it never seemed to penetrate my heart. I understood it....sort of, but allowing my heart to truly KNOW it was another story. I think I am starting to...it's truly life altering. 





 

Within this concept of Bridal Love, Shannon shares a thought that I have been meditating on all week.

Is it possible that God created sunsets, the ocean, the color pink and chocolate because He knew I would LOVE them?

It caused me to think of another situation...a friend had been traveling way out west and saw a book: Pink Princess Tea Parties, She told me, she immediately thought of me because I love all of those things and bought the book to bring home to me. It was such a sweet and very unexpected surprise, (thank you Shari), but if I let my imagination wander just a wee bit, is it possible, that God, knowing I would be thrilled with such a gift, had the store carry it and display it at just the time and place that Shari would be shopping , see it and think of me? Maybe that thought verges on vanity...but maybe, just maybe, He cares for us that much.

My little girls, (don't tell them I referred to them that way please), made gifts and cards for their daddy's birthday yesterday. They knew we had purchased gifts and even cards from them, but they knew their daddy's heart and they knew what he would love and cherish, and they created it.

Could God have been thinking of me and what I would love and cherish, when He created chocolate beans and my happy flower Pansies?
For me, these are extravagant thoughts...but the more I meditate on these ideas, the more I realize my God loves me enough that it is most certainly quite possible indeed.

WOW! WOW!! WOW!!!!



I am Thankful for so many things this Thanksgiving weekend...The Love of  a God who is gently wooing me into a place of Bridal Love and all of the many gifts He has showered on me from the beginning of time.
For this amazing family He has created and is raising through me...truly a miracle!
For friendships...most definitely a gift to treasure.

I am thankful for all of the beauty he surrounds me with,  from the amazng Autumn colors to blazing sunsets, to the most girly of all colors...PINK.

He IS good...AND He Really , Really Loves US!





HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!






6 comments:

Shaun and Holly said...

Happy Thanksgiving to our Dear Friends!!

Maureen said...

Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours.
Have a blessed and wonderful weekend.
By the way the first picture blew me away with all the colours. There was something so breath taking about it so it is now my background .

Williams Family Blog said...

Happy Thanksgiving to the Piers family!
By the way, I think I need to get a copy of Shannon's book to read for myself.

Shaun and Holly said...

Yes, Jen...sounds like such a great book. Thanks for sharing some of the things that you are learning!!

xo

Amy said...

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Tamatha said...

I love chocolate...and Panzies...but I don't love pink!lol

What a great post. Makes me want to listen to the song of solomon series that I have on my computer:o)