He is the Father.
If one lesson does not reach me, another comes. And if that one fails, another. Still, if that doesn’t land, yet another. That loop is on repeat.
It’s a series of natural consequences.
It’s also a rescue.
It’s the quiet insistence of a Father who knows what is best, even when I cannot see it.
Oh, but now I see it! I feel it, too!
These days I’m reading the Bible with new eyes, listening with new ears. I see my life shining down at me.
It touches the corners of my heart that I’ve usually kept guarded. To myself, I call it “the great softening” and I’d like to think it’s taking what is rigidly worn in me and renewing it.
Before I may have just checked the box – yep, I read Bible today. But now it’s alive in me. I trust it. It guides and shapes me.
I’m awake.
As a dad, I don’t think to choose comfort first for my kids. No, I just want to do what is best for them, and what will help them grow.
God does the same for me. It just so happens that it’s not always comfortable.
So when I turn away, or cut corners, the consequences are not intended as wrath, but they are the firm, loving hand of someone who will not let me drift from the heart I belong to.
And like we see with our own kids, that doesn’t always play out pretty. Sometimes it’s a hard lesson.
Or a hard season.
But God doesn’t want me to feel regret. He wants me to make the connection. Now I see my life closely, my choices, my relationships.
Am I moving with Him, or away from Him?
In that question, I feel what holiness might be. I have a new appreciation and understanding of the word Holy.
When you are aiming to walk in the Father’s will, you are letting His love shape the way you live in each small act and every quiet moment.
He sees all of it.
I pray that I don’t fall asleep or backslide to this understanding. This is what it means to “fear the Lord.” I pray that I maintain this awareness and closeness to His Word.
Amen!