A Life on God's Terms: Responding to God's Love in Loving Abandon

Sitting down with a sheet of paper, his imagination ran wild.   Bright colors flung across the paper.   The pen seemed to dance in his hand.   Curls and swirls everywhere.   The page began to take on a life of it’s own with animals and monsters.    As he drew, he hummed one of his favorite songs.  I began to sing along as I watched him work.  When he was close to being done, he filled the corner of the page with hearts.  He then wrote “for mom” among the hearts, smiled and handed me his work of art.  

So many gifts in this child.  He is wide eyed in wonder, bursting with energy and imagination.   He makes up games to play with his friends and invites them to join in.   Every day seems to be filled with new joys.   He is quick to trust others, believing the best of others and quickly following along with what he is told.

In Matthew 18:3-4, Jesus calls a little child over and says to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

The word become here is Strongs #1096, the Greek word ginomai.   It means to come into being, being born, emerging or showing oneself.  In this way, it is a condition or a state that shows itself rather than an effort or something we strive after.   

We do not need to try to be little children.  When we are born again to new life, we are also being born again to a state of childlike wonder, belief and faith.  God is making us more and more like little children. 

Hmm… What if God is like a Father handing his child a blank sheet of paper and some colors?   Our hearts to fling bright colors across the page everywhere as we let our imagination run wild.   A song filling up in our hearts, we can’t help to hum as we work.  And hearts everywhere on our pages, filling all the empty corners with love for those around us. 

Are we willing to come out and play?

Children are so present to the moment.  They know how to play.  They know how to trust.  They know how to obey.   They are filled with joy and drink in life like a sponge.  And in their sweet innocence, they are filled with warm hugs for those around them.

Romans 8:15-17 says, “This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!”

Too often we see our faith as following a set of rules laid out in the bible.  We see it as something we do rather than something we are.   We work hard at following the rules and we are critical of ourselves and others where we can’t seem to get it right.

We say we love our neighbor unconditionally but then avoid them as soon as they offend us.  We hold them at arm’s length.  Then we blame our judgement on them for their behaviors.   If only they treated me differently….  They make it difficult to be around them.   We do not enjoy them.  We categorize others and judge them by our standards.

When we are living by the rules, even our good efforts can be off key to an extent.  When we are struggling with forgiving or loving, we don’t need to work harder at it, grit our teeth and make it happen.  What we need is to sit in the love of God and let His heart change ours for the person.

I once was really struggling with forgiveness of someone who hurt me deeply.   I was wrestling in my heart about it and went into my prayer room to pray and wrestle with God over it.   I felt all tangled up inside and resentment towards the other person was creeping up everywhere.  

As I spent some time praying, became frustrated and was about to leave, a song came across the radio.  It said, “Surely she has been loved much, she will forgive much.”   At the moment, my heart broke.   All my arguments about how I was right and they were wrong fell to the ground.    It was in the love of God that I was able to abandon my anger.     

The next day I found myself blessing the person I had been so angry at.  Gratitude and joy filled my heart for the love and forgiveness I experienced in my own life.   Spending time in God’s love and forgiveness for me, I found freedom and loving abandon.  

Children know how to live in love.  They don’t think that they have to do it all themselves.  They allow others to help them.   They depend on others. 

We are being born into love.   As we receive God’s love, we are learning to live in trusting abandon.  Adam and Eve lived this way.  They trusted and depended upon God for everything.  They lived in His love naked and unashamed.

It was not eating the apple that was their first sin.  It was allowing doubt of God’s goodness to them creep in and dictate their behaviors.   When we try by our own efforts, too often, doubt, rules and the resulting sin dictate our behavior rather than trusting abandon to His love.  

We need to awaken to God’s Fatherly immense love and live in it!  

Lord, help us to live in your love.  Let us be more and more changed into the image of a trusting child who lives in loving abandon.  Wash away our fears, doubts, rule following, striving, and critical judgement of others and ourselves.

A little prayer from my ten year old -

"Dear God,
I am lucky to be your son and I want to be in your life. 
And when I face the night, I know you will take care of me. 
And even if something stops me,
I still will follow the path to the cross.  
And even if I am not with you, I still love you God. 
If I get hurt, I know you will heal me. 
If we were in a war, we would fight our enemies together. 
And if I didn't have friends, I know you would help me.
And when I come to heaven, I will come and sit next to you. 
And one day I hope the world will change."

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