Divine Romance

The palm trees of Nebraska :)

I've decided I like being romanced.

I've also decided my idea of romance involves a lot of being quiet and enjoying but it also involves being active while enjoying something as well.

Turns out the more time I spend in it, the more I quite like nature and am taken with it's natural beauty. My favorite time of day is when the sun is coming up and going down and after the sun is down but it's still light out. The world is a calmer, slower, quieter place. And it isn't blisteringly hot like the rest of the day is guaranteed to have been if you live in Nebraska.

I'm reading "Captivated" by John & Stasi Eldredge and it is slow going, not because it is boring, but because there is so much I want to take in I have to read it in little parts, underline, think about it, journal, re-read, and re-think. I'm really enjoying the book and the process that I've turned it in to so not surprisingly I'm only in to Chapter 2 - What Eve Alone Can Tell.

If being surrounded by thousands of roses doesn't say romance...

The half of the chapter I have been through so far is about beauty and how that ties in specifically with women and our role in God's world. I can't explain how much this whole book ties in so perfectly with what my heart has been yearning to hear. Also how God has made women so beautifully in the way we create relationships with others.

Anyway I was re-inspired by my friend Caleb who is off living an adventure filled life around Virginia Beach, serving God and serving anyone else who shows up, when he sent out a mass text of a sunrise over the water. I was a little jealous - I love the beach, I love the sun coming up, and I love Jesus and like chilling with Him watching beautiful things. I've also recently had a lot of empty space in my life where a boyfriend used to be and it's hard to find other things to fill that void, but I'm convinced God can fill that hole and offer me more than enough love, adventure and romance if I seek Him out.

"Divine Romance" by Phil Wickham is how
I feel when I'm on a date with God

So I've been going out around the town in search of beautiful new date spots for me and that Jesus guy. Clearly I didn't need a beach or need to go somewhere to experience God's glory in nature. These are from two spots I went to this past week - the Sunken Gardens and Veterans Garden and some random cemetery I found out in the country.

Admittedly, not everyone might find being alone in a cemetery while the sun goes down romantic, but it was so peaceful and beautiful that I really enjoyed it and plan on going back! If I can find it again...

I can't explain how amazing it feels to be romanced by God. Someone who knows my heart so thoroughly He knows everything that makes me smile - from a breeze through my hair to the loud music I like to sing along with everywhere I drive. :) While I was relaxing in the gardens, I was journaling and what came out was a semblance of a love letter - secretly in addition to being an avid blogger and journaler, I have a little bit of poet trapped in my little artsy soul. I'm going to share a little bit of this with you to hopefully give you a glimpse of a God who loves you as your Father, but also as a lover and pursuer of your heart.

"I'm feeling so thankful for your painters pallet of ceaseless color combinations. You paint the seasons with your magical fingertips - you've brushed the sky an ombre shade of the palest of blues, grays, pinks and white. Golden clouds and an orange sky are all that's left as Your glorious sun fall downs behind the trees where I can no longer see it - but like You, I know it is still there. I can see the moon coming up while the sun is going down and I'm reminded that you've cast my sins as far as the East is from the West. You've created this moment specifically for me - from the taste of wine still on my lips to the softest-looking of fur on the rabbit hopping mere feet in front of me to the ants crossing the vast plane of the concrete sidewalk I'm  resting my bare feet on. It's still warm with the remnants of the sun's kisses.

I feel treasured, I feel loved. I feel wanted, planned for. The wind in the trees causes a rustling whisper, like a voice saying to my heart - "Hush, be still. Enjoy me and being with me in my presence, for I enjoy being with you, my love, my most dearly beloved." 

Like I said, I was feeling a little poetic, cheesy as any of that may sound. What I really want you to take away with you and think about the next time you recognize a beautiful moment you are experiencing - I want you to know that the moment was created for you - planned for you before you were even here on this Earth.

In Jeremiah, God has to tell this guy <Jeremiah> to go do stuff and Jeremiah freaks out a little bit because he is pretty convinced he is under-qualified to do God's bidding, but God tells him - 

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, 
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." 

Jeremiah 1:5

What I love about that verse is that God knew and wanted Jeremiah to know that God has known him, everything about him, from the dawn of time and the same holds true for all of us. God has known us and known us thoroughly, deeply, before we even knew we existed.The same reassurance - that we, that I was planned for before the Earth was created speaks to me so deeply of my value and God's desire to love and be loved by me and walk in relationship with me - also jumps out at me in Ephesians -

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight" - 

Ephesians 1:4

I think there's a couple more verses that are pretty similar, you can Google it, but I am so excited about discovering this romantic and beautiful side of God that I wanted to share it with you. Another example is currently happening right now - I'm writing about this man that I love while I enjoy a glass of wine and delicious Comte cheese on fresh bread.

  Heavenly.