a Love Story – THIS LOVE – February 28

a LOVE STORY
February 28, 2021

this Love

2 Corinthians 4:7; 16-18, ‘If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the adorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us…
So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without His unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever (MSG).’

I was but clay in the hand of the Potter, and out of the clay, He fashioned a vessel. I didn’t keep track of all the hours I shared His workspace but it seems timeless now. He breathed and I became, formed from dust and a dream. I felt empty at first, hollow, and I tried to stuff all the vacant space with anything that might satiate the void, but nothing satisfied. He told me why then as He looked deep inside me, His gaze penetrating all my hidden places. He said, because of this love He has for me, He has chosen to leave a hollow that only He can fill, that nothing else ever will take up the space inside of me He is meant to complete. So I will need Him to breathe, so He can be my God and I can be His people, so that I will choose to have no other gods in place of Him, so He can be the center on which I turn.

I sat on that workbench for what seemed an eternity, waiting for Him. The silence was deafening and after a while I began to get anxious. I talked to myself but the words were a foreign language to me so I decided then to talk to Him. After all, He was Who had formed me then forgot me, I thought. But the more I talked to Him, a peace began to bathe me, as if He was very near. So I started to sing, and out of my emptiness, came abundance. I realized he had poured Himself into me so much I was overflowing with Him!

It really startled me as I began to comprehend what the Potter had been doing for me all along. I wept as the reality completed my emptiness. Long before the beginning of time, He had me in mind. My name was on His lips and His hope melded my heart with purpose and intention. I wasn’t an accident or an
afterthought; I was His first thought and I was planned. Through every chapter He authored, He was writing me into His love story. He was filling in every blank with His love for me, and He would finish what He started. The good work He had begun, I suddenly knew with certainty, He would complete.

This love dreamed big enough to create an entire world that built us into His-story, and then He didn’t want forever without His children in it, so He made a way. Romans 5:8 says, ‘But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ This is extravagant love! This love is sacrificial! it gave the very best the Father had to give, His only Son, for you and
for me. There hasn’t been nor will there ever be a time when we won’t be at the fore front of the Father’s thoughts because, from beginning to end, we, His children, are why the Creator chose to write this Love Story. I hope I never doubt again my worth!