God invites you into his beauty.
He calls you by name…are you listening?
The world, its grandeur; joy, laughter; nature, it beckons. All speaking as an invitation. An invitation into the most beautiful life. Something greater than you could ever imagine.
Are you listening?
Are you willing to enter in?
If you decide to enter in, you begin to see the infinite nature and goodness of God. As a new Christian, you accept that God is infinite and you are finite, but the more you enter in — the bigger and more intimate God becomes…its rather amazing. I have read several quotes in the past few weeks that continue to invite me in to God’s goodness…and I pray as you read these quotes they will do the same for you. With every word you read I pray that God will draw you deeper and deeper into his majesty, and that you may be swept off your feet as I have been, and that you will be allured by the beauty and bounty of Him.
“Every time you listen with great attentiveness to the voice that calls you the Beloved, you will discover within yourself a desire to hear that voice longer and more deeply. It is like discovering a well in the desert. Once you have touched wet ground, you want to dig deeper.
“I have been doing a lot of digging lately and I know that I am just beginning to see a little stream bubbling up through the dry sand. I have to keep digging because that little stream comes from a huge reservoir beneath the desert of my life. The word ‘digging’ might not be the best word, since it suggests hard and painful work that finally leads me to the place where I can quench my thirst. Perhaps all we need to do is remove the sand that covers the well. There may be quite a pile of dry sand in our lives, but the One who so desires to quench our thirst will help us to remove it. All we really need is a great desire to find the water and drink from it.
“…I do feel a certain impatience toward you because I dont want you to waste too much of your time…Therefore, I want to assure you already, now, that you do not have to get caught in searches that lead only to entanglement. Neither do you have to become to victim of a manipulative world or get trapped in any kind of addition. You can choose to reach out now to true inner freedom and find it ever more fully.” - Life of the Beloved, Henri Nouwen
Whatever is keeping you from this well of life – remove it. Ask God to take it away so that you can find water that will quench your thirst. Drink. Take a sip. Dip in your toes…and then allow yourself to be totally saturated by his presence.
This next quote is from The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis…and I think it perfectly describes what I have been learning about God recently…his grandeur is humbling:
“‘The further up and further in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside!’ Lucy looked hard at the garden and saw that it was not really a garden at all, but a whole world, with its own rivers and woods and sea and mountains. But they were not strange: she knew them all. ‘I see,’ she said, ‘this is still Narnia, and a more real and more beautiful Narnia than down below…I see…world within world, Narnia within Narnia.’
“‘Yes,’ said Mr. Tumnus, ‘Like an onion: except that as you continue to go in and in, each circle is larger than the last.”
Man. Is that not awesome?! We take a step in to peer at God and we are amazed at his beauty…but then we take another step and we realize he is even more beautiful and worthy than before. With each step as we enter in to his goodness…we realize he is even more majestical than before. Its an amazing phenomenon.
My prayer with this quote is that you find your inner child and begin exploring. Explore your Creator. Find him, search for him. He is inviting you in.
I have begun a new journey in my life where slowly I am beginning to peel back the layers of God. And just as Henri Nouwen and Lucy found, God continues to become deeper and more beautiful than ever before.
Unfold the mysteries and complexities of God — do not be fearful of them, but may they bring you to a place of worship.
