Love Letters

There's a special one for you from the Father. Picture the Bible as His love letter for you---with many pages. Picture the ten commandments as a love letter carved in stone!

For now, let's take a peek at the preparation for the writing of that love letter:

God lovingly reminds the Israelites of how He has brought them out of captivity- not in a slow, laborious way, but in miraculous ways. He reminds them of how He parted the waters for them, how He literally carried them into safety and out of danger. This He did despite their fears and their complaining. He did it in spite of their lack of faith. He reminds them that He brought them to Himself...and not just turned loose in the desert.

He often does the same with us. He reminds us of how He has to let us stumble and fall as we grow. But He always is there to lift us back up and carry us out of the messes we create for ourselves. Each time He does it, it is in a more intimate way. Each time, we grow more. Each time, He cradles us in love.

I love the example of the mother Eagle. She builds that mammoth nest that is at least eight feet by eight feet, as deep as 20 feet, and weighing a couple of tons. She fills it up with leaves , animal fur, and down from her own breast, making it warm and cozy. What a snug, safe place for her eaglets! No wonder they have no desire to venture out on their own.

But when the time comes, she takes them out to the sky and drops them! Poor little guys go plummeting to the earth with no idea how to help themselves.

Mamma eagle watches, and swoops down just before her baby crashes, flies under him, and picks him up. She flies back up toward home....and again drops him. Over and over, she repeats this pattern. Each time, she swoops down to save him and bears him up....on eagles wings.

As we look back on our own lives, we see the blessings God has provided. We too, plummet, and have nothing between us and the abyss. We "were without hope and without God in the world." (Eph 2:12).

But for us, Christ has swooped in to save us from the big crash. He picks us up and carries us home. He gave us all we have. He sustains us and keeps us on a daily basis.

Isaiah 40:31

but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

God tells the Israelites "if you will indeed obey My voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

He does the same for us:

He calls us to Himself.

He bears us on eagle's wings.

He gives us His promises if we obey.

He makes us become a kingdom.

God gave His commandments because He knew ahead of time where we needed direction He knew the consequences of wrong decisions.

We always need help beyond our experience or age - and He knew that beforehand. Out of love, He prepared for us very clear directions.

Psalm 119: 97-100

Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.
Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me.
I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.
I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Phil 3:12-14
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 55:8-9

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.