I re-established that "tradition" here in TX with my own Children and Grandchildren (some 30 of us!) though I confess one Sunday a month was, logistically, the best we could manage to get everyone together at the same time. (Snow was seldom a concern!) After church that big ole' house would smell so good...and sound so alive! Such were the thoughts I shared on that couch with Jesus...on Day 31 and such are the memories I will cherish long after the house is sold and my visits to it are over.
Yesterday, on that couch in a near empty Family Room...I felt Jesus' presence beside me...helping me make sense of all the emotion I was experiencing. And I thought I got it. But, once again...He had more for me than I could grasp in that moment. He is so patient with me!
Then Sunday came, again. The message was, as always, refreshing, inspiring, and...in this case "motivating" as our Pastor talked about letting our desire (our aim --our motivation) be to please God and to be Ambassadors in His service in this earth, our temporary home..pointing others to Him. The verses from 2 Corinthians 5 reminded me of all that God has done FOR me...making a way for me to be a "new creation in Christ Jesus"...making it possible for "old things to pass away...new things to come." My heart song was "Freely I have received...freely will give, Lord."
As the service came to a close our Pastor ended with this verse from Revelation 3:20 "'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and 'will dine with him,' and he with Me."
The italics are mine! Those words struck the cord of intimacy that was the foundation of all the treasured family memories I had danced through the past 48 hours! Here my Lord, my God...my Jesus, alive and at my side first on a lone couch, and now in the church sanctuary...brought home "the rest of the message" He had begun to share the day before--The "reality" of God Himself sitting across a table from me...dining with me...intimately relating to me!
The Lord God who parted the Red Sea...DINES with me! The Lord God who gave His only Son to die on a cross for any and all of my failings so that I could live...walks with me, and talks with me, and sits by my side on a lone couch wiping my tears, then draws me closer and closer to the understanding that IS Him...the Truth that IS His Word and the intimacy that IS His love!
Lord...I am overwhelmed!
Have you ever "dined" with Jesus? Is that a knock at your door?