Banner Over Me

Today I posted a quote on FB. It was encouraging to me, and I thought it would be to people I know.

BUT.

It was interpreted, by some, in a different way than I had interpreted it. And before I knew it, a raging horror of cruelty and name calling was splashed across my FB feed. There were my Christian, evangelically conservative friends, my Christian, “liberal” friends, my agnostic, and “other” religion type friends and there were names being called and assumptions being made…

I just feel sick.

I deleted it all as soon as I realized what was happening. But the sickness lingers.

Really?

A non-salvation issue, and you’re going to call into question the validity of my faith?

For hours this morning, some thoughts had been roiling and boiling in my head and heart. I can’t distill them yet, so I’ll try to at least get it down on paper tonight.

GOD

“HE” pursues me. He is in and around all the air I breath, in every movement of my life and there is not a place I go or a moment my hearts beats in which I am not aware of his reality and power.

As I stagger, crawl, run, march, or dance through this life, I feel that my every move is a response to His love for me.

I paraphrase here, the words God spoke to Job. And I ask this of any man or woman who judges my place as God’s loved child.

Did you create Hallie?

Did you cup her in the palm of your hand, and mix the blue of her eyes?

Did you pour peace over her 6 year old heart, as her innocence took a beating?

Did you flood her heart, as she lay in the grass, and the pricks of each blade whispered the name of her creator?

Did you open her eyes to undercurrents beyond her years, or meet her in her fear and loneliness?

Where were you, when the night seemed too dark to survive?

Did you reveal your love in the taste of a summer-warm peach, or the force of rain and the slap of mud on her boots?

Did you pursue her across continents and through tropical storms?

Where were you, when she cried out in pain?

Did you show up in a tangle of arms and strength, and eyes that saw her for who she really was?

Did you see her deepest fears?

Where were you, when she begged to be held?

Did you witness her greatest shame, and find that she still ran straight into your arms?

So please.

Shut up.

Sit down.

Close your eyes.

Take a breath.

Open your hand and trust me to the one you say is sovereign.

Let Him be the one who does the work no human hand can do.

Seriously. I have no energy for your judgment, no time for your games.

I am my Beloveds, and my Beloved is mine, and His banner over me is Love.