What's your tatoo?

Don't you feel bad for those people who are in a lasting relationship who get a tatoo with their lover's name on it?

And then it doesn't work out?

Painful enough getting the tatoo....much more painful for the breakup.....and now to get the tatoo removed....ouch!

The girl to whom my son is engaged to marry has a tatoo on her wrist with the name of her first love on it - and it's not my son's name. Will she have it removed? I pray she never...never....never does, and that she keeps her devotion to her first love all the days of her life.

There is no one who is as committed to or loves us more than this Jesus - God the Father became one of us to get our attention - to let us know that His thoughts are continually on us and His love for us is unending. Really......why would we NOT want Him? Why would we 'break up' with the most profound love there is?

"But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul."

I think the last part of that verse which I underlined is where too many of us miss out. Rather than being relentless in pursuing Him for a lifetime (because though we find Him, there is so much more of His love to discover), we either search in all the wrong places, aren't willing to give up anything in the process, or we almost want Him to do all the work - strike us with some divine bolt of lightning to 'prove' Himself to us and give us what we think we need. That is at the very least, arrogant of us. When Jesus walked here and raised people from the dead before their very eyes, some people still wouldn't believe the undeniable evidence because at the root of it, for whatever reasons, they didn't want HIM.  He gave everything He could laying down His life - even to the ones who didn't want Him. Do we cherish that and want to love Him with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind - 'tatooing' Him to us for all time, so to speak? It's that longing for Him with everything within us that will carry us through the wilderness times in our life - the hard times when things don't go as we planned, or we lose a loved one, feel abandoned, or depressed. He is the Rock we can depend on. He doesn't change in spite of our ups and downs.

I recently watched a video clip featured at Big Ear Creations and haven't been able to stop thinking about what was said towards the end of the clip. I share it at the end of this post. It is of Charles Stanley, a pastor explaining a moment, even after years of being in ministry, that he finally 'got' that he was profoundly loved by God. We can hear it all our lives and still not get it.

I will tell you that in my own life, I only remember one time that my parents hugged me and told me that they loved me - and that was because leaving my teenage years I finally couldn't stand another moment of living in a home where love was never expressed in any manner. I just typed that last sentence easily, but I can tell you that the years of turmoil, emotion, and the impact of a somewhat dysfunctional family (as well meaning and wonderful as my parents still were) is something I can't begin to tell. I don't blame them - I know they loved me but had difficulty ever expressing it. I'm sure they had their own stories, but they never told them. I'm glad that they are now experiencing being perfectly loved in the presence of their Creator. I wouldn't give up for anything the struggles I fought in that stage of my life and still battle at times, because it has caused me to cling to my Heavenly Father with everything within me. We all need to 'get' that we really are loved. But even imperfect human love is not enough.

We were lovingly and thoughtfully created in hopes that we would respond and love the One who knows us completely.

He first loved us before we loved Him. It's a healing love.And once seen through a heart that truly wants Him, it changes everything. He comes to live where He's welcomed.

That's a love I'd be a fool to ever break up with.