whATTRIBUTES: Loving & Kind One
LOVING & KIND ONE
February 9th, 2022
Maybe it was a pipedream that I was. But I met myself in a promise and kept believing. I hadn’t been able to make anything from this nothingness, just lost for such a lengthy time, wandering, always wandering. I perjured everything. One thing, however, no one can perjure—that’s God’s Word.
I was so discouraged. Met myself coming, found myself going. Who keeps motivating in this manner? Far easier to give up, just call it what it is: a wash. The world was so brilliantly alight. All the glitz and glimmer. Everything that dangled, enticed, beckoned. But, nothing fulfilled. Had anything ever? I doubted so; seemed I had been searching for a lifetime.
I felt ended. It was over. I didn’t want to do this anymore. Why keep running on the ‘hamster wheel of life’, round and round, never getting anywhere? I decided to walk it off one last time, see the sights, marvel at how beautiful life was no matter what; how glorious it could be if dealt the winning hand. To some, a Victory Lap is run; for me, my final Defeat Lap. I was okay, having reconciled…it all.
I moved closer, curious by the large crowd which had gathered. There was nothing special to attract anyone, but the profoundness of his words quieted those who huddled in a circle. So extraordinary was the pull at my heart, a magnetic strain. This is what I heard, ‘The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, with lovingkindness, I have drawn you.”’ (Jeremiah 31:3, NKJV).
This is what I saw: I saw myself a part of a whole, not a piece of a half. I was painted into a hope for tomorrow not placed in a corner of the past. With an artist’s charcoal pen, with His brushstrokes, He had drawn me, raw and real, hopeful and whole, expectant and eternal. Dipping His pen of belief into the ink of grace, He drafted me into a likeness of His Son. The temporal was no longer even offered on any altar of forever due to His everlasting love for me. I realized then, being set free is the most redeeming act ever given to mankind from a loving and holy God. I raised my chin to the sky and gratitude fell out. It was time to go home and begin again, a new day on the horizon.
Today is my dad’s first birthday celebrated with Jesus. This was one of His favorite verses and we loved to savor its meaning. I will always have this vision in my mind of the God of the Universe designing and developing me, drawing, sketching, creating me with His pen filled with lovingkindness. My dad would shudder, shiver a little, his grin so huge it ate his face as he imagined being drawn close to the bosom of His Father because of His lovingkindness toward His children. I think we both got it right, Dad. Happy Heavenly Birthday. I miss you so much.
