What Wild Love...

In the midst of the Lord bringing Meehan and I together this past year He also helped us understand His wild love for each of us. The months prior to us getting to know each other were some of the most difficult of our lives. I was in a place of confusion and condemnation. I wasn't happy about where I was in life, and only able to see the mistakes I'd made leading up to that point. For Meehan, she had just broken off an engagement, and was living under pain and condemnation for some mistakes and decisions she had made. In that time, fully aware of our failures, neither  of us felt worthy of even the smallest blessing from the Lord.  It was at that point, unbeknown to the other that we began to like each other but instead, it felt  like torture. We were both stripped of any hope that God would want the best for us after all we had done (or not done). If you had asked us seperately what we felt most unworthy of at that time the answer would have been "each other," hands down. That's when it began to happen...

The Lord actually began to orchestrate and give to us the very thing we both felt so incredibly unworthy of. We quickly learned that there is nothing like getting something you know you haven't done anything to deserve. It was God's way of helping us realize what it truly means to be His son and Daughter. It was like God was showing us that even though we didn't deserve it, we somehow did now simply because we were His. He showed us that when we accepted Him into our lives it was like a waterfall of His love was placed over us that we can't get out of. No matter what we do or don't do we now "deserve" good but Not because of us (inspite of us) and because of Him! That's the mystery of the Gospel! That's how WILD His love is! During this time, the Lord spoke to me one day while out on a walk with Him. He said to me, "Daniel, do you know why it is so hard for you to accept my love?""No" i said. He replied "Because you are religious." He continued, " You only put your arms out to receive my love when you think you deserve it. Try putting your arms out when you feel like you don't deserve it and I guarantee you will get the exact same thing you did when you felt like you did." I was stunned.But it is so true and I realized for the first time that truly God's love and blessing over me is not contingent  upon my successes or my failures. When I asked Him into my life, I became His son and from that point on He has always seen me as 'deserving' good; not because of anything I have done, but only because of what He has done. That is why when the woman of my dreams came into my life he not only desired that blessing for me but also gave us a big fat"YES" stamp of approval. Isn't it true that His kindness leads us to repentance? O that we would all understand the beauty of our identity in Christ...
 There is a poem by Shel Siverstein called, "The Giving Tree" that Meehan and I think really helps portray God's unfailing love to us as His children. We have posted a version of it here for you to watch. May you live loved today.