Out of the mouth of Babe

I love how there really is no waste in God’s economy. In my last entry I was whining a bit about not having space in my brain to think and yet somewhere during the day a thought took root in me and started hanging out and making itself at home. I love rearranging furniture.  Brain furniture. The parts of the mind that are so ingrained  as to seem like comfy furniture.

I was thinking of the word ‘want’.  We are said to be in want if there is something lacking. If we don’t have it, we want it. As you know I have been the recepient of many "things" that people no longer want via craigslist, so I know of what I am speaking.  For one reason or the other, you can want a thing (which is certainly not always a need) and once you have it you might at some point feel it has no more value to you. 

You don’t want it.

Not just regular stuff either, like keeping up with the Jones’s stuff.

You can have food, and not want it.

You can have water and not want it.

You can have a relationship and not want it.

You can have basic, necessary things and not want them.

I started thinking about Psallms 23. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. I do believe that God supplies all of our needs both physical and spiritual. In light of my ‘wanting’ thought though I began to wonder about how, if we have all of our needs met in Christ, specifically spiritual needs, it might be possible to stop wanting Him. 

Isn’t it desire for more of someone that keeps you coming back. God has hidden mysteries, but he reveals them to us. He has said, "..you shall not want."  "…He has freely given us all things that pertain to life and godliness…"

Will we then not lose interest? Not want Him anymore? Like a mental rubics cube I toyed with this thought for a while. Asking The Lord what His thoughts on it were.

Obviously the very fact that I was asking says that I don’t know everything and will be seeking Him always. That is not my point here, go with this for a moment.

From this point on I will be typing in the dark because of ipad limitations. I will come back and edit on the pc.

I have not fully grasped this idea yet. It is a long way around it and it entails so much. As humans we understand want. Human nature makes us want. Human nature does not appreciate for long what is given, what is possessed.  After a while it doesn’t want it. 

In His giving of everything, God gave us something else.  He gave us his nature.  He gave us love. and love isn’t about what the lover wants. Love is ‘other’ minded. Not about  getting what I need but about giving what is needed. 

There is a whole paradigm shift then. We don’t not want Him just because we have Him.   We become other natured. Instead of needing, we love. Instead of not wanting Him, whom we have. We BECOME who He is. Love.

You might think that was the point of this entry. That was just the set up. 

After typing that last entry of mine, where I was sitting next to my MIL complaining on here about not having enough brain space, a topic came up that opened the door for me to share my thoughts about want. Chuck’s mom had some questions for me and my answers went against things she has believed her whole life.  We had a very lively discussion, though not unfriendly,. The end conclusion being that that though we may not agree on everything doctrinally,  there was still Christ.  I told her that I didn’t have to be right because if all of it was put to the fire there would be nothing but Christ left anyway.

You might think that story was the point of this entry, but it isn’t.

After our lengthy discussion I put The Babe  to bed.  She was practically glowing with questions and answers.  She started telling me what she thought of the conversation she had just heard.. We talked about what Jesus did on the cross, and off it. The term born again came up. 

As most of you know, I don’t take part in organized religion.  We don’t go to a building that is called church. My daughter has been to Sunday school a total of one time in her life.  I don’t do bible studies with her.  Every now and then something in her life wants a bible scripture to magnify it to show her what is going on in her. At bed time when we are swapping stories of the day I will be reminded by her day of a story in the bible.  I begin those stories with , "You know, a long time ago there was this one guy…."  I tell her I know about the one guy and his story because it is recorded in the bible.   The only "church" she has known is when believers gather at a house to share Christ with each other.

Until this year she had not noticed more then a handful of times that buildings are called churches by some most people.  This year then, because she started noticing (probably because of going to Sunday school with Nernels) I began to  qualify that that building  her friends are talking about going to is not the church, as they say, but the building where the church meets. The people are the church. She has picked up on this and is seeing the difference. 

All of that to say that the little girl standing on her knees, bouncing in the middle of her bed has never been told what being born again means, exactly. She may have never heard the term and comprehended it in a meaningful way . And so it was with much excitement that she received my question.  "The bible says that we have to be born again. What’s up with that? How can a person be born again once they ave been born and are grown?"

"OH! I know!,", she cried as if the idea she had just had had never been thought of before, "You die and then you come into a whole new world….." As she said this had her hands together like a diver and spread them apart to show entering into that whole new world.

The sentence wasn’t even out of her mouth before she realized that she was suggesting that we all have to die to be born. It was perfect, it was beautiful. I told her that because all things came from God, we were inside of Him when he died. 

Her eyes widened at that thought. "Yeah," I said, "so we already died with him and when he was raised from the dead we were still inside of him. And Babe,in 50 years of being alive I have never heard anyone explain born again better then you just did."

"It is exactly, coming into a whole new world."

In Sandy soil I plant this seed, If even only I do heed.

In death is life; won’t be denied, grown by tears of sorrow cried.

The truth is harsh, the babes are dead, I’ll hold mine closer in their stead.

It’s all I have and know to do. I don’t admit those lives are through.

I will not waste this plot of land, it will not wither ‘neath my hand.

Come here my Love, look in my eyes,

Do you know how dear you are to me….?