Daddy!

Yesterday a couple of my friends (yes, I mean Facebook) shared a link to a video which I almost didn’t watch. I thought I knew what it was about and I have seen stuff like that before and I didn’t really have time, etc. etc. (I’ll post the link at the end of my blog but I want to talk about it before you see it.) I did watch it. And it was good. But what happened later was better. The Lord began to teach me some things using those touching scenes that has my spirit all stirred up.

The video is a montage of clips featuring soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan to surprise their families. It gets to you on a lot of levels and tugs at all your heart strings! It combines elements of all the things that make us emotional, so don’t expect to watch it without a tear or two. It’s a great video, even if you just take it at face value. It makes us thankful for family and for our soldiers and for the sacrifices they all make…but there is something more to see here; something spiritual and eternally significant.

I was struck by the reactions of the kids when they saw their Dad. First, shock and awe, disbelief and dumbfoundedness. Then, when the reality sinks in that this guy standing there in front of them really is their Daddy, everything - and I mean everything and everybody around them - shrinks to utter insignificance. They drop and immediately forget everything that they were doing, things that just one second ago seemed very important: baseball, volleyball, school, their friends. The things of earth grow strangely dim, as it were, in the light of his face. Nothing is even close to remotely being in the same zip-code as one overriding thought and emotion: “That’s my Daddy! My Daddy is home! My Daddy is here to get me! Then, what comes next is a run-as-fast-as-I-can-to-get-to-you-jump-in-your-arms-and-hug-so-tight-around-the-neck–and-bury-my-face-in-your-chest-with-tears-of-joy reaction that is apparently, universal.

What we see in the eyes, faces and reactions of these children is probably the best earthly expression I have ever seen to illustrate what we will experience when we close our eyes in death over here, only to immediately open them up in eternal life over there and see HIS face! To me, it gives a whole new understanding to this verse: “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ""Abba," (Daddy) “Father." (Rom. 8:15)

One of the clips is of a wife who is engrossed in her computer, probably answering e-mail or chatting on a social network, but when her bridegroom comes “like a thief in the night” she is immediately caught up in the ecstasy of being with him. Her thoughts are evident in her face and in her immediate response to his presence. It’s as though she says with her hug, “I’ll never let you go, and we will never be apart again!” In an instant, whatever she was looking at and thinking about before he appeared immediately becomes a faint, distant, trivial memory- perhaps never to be brought to mind again.

So, as I was pondering and chewing on all this, amazed that my Heavenly Father wanted to share these things with me and overwhelmed by my emotions as I thought of what it might be like to be in heaven, seeing Jesus and experiencing all the glorious re-unions with loved ones there…(if you want to mentally play “I Can Only Imagine” in your mind right now it would be helpful)… the Lord quietly dropped this bombshell of an idea on me: “Son, this is what true worship looks like.”

When we become aware of the presence of our Father - I mean truly aware – everything else disappears. We run to Him, reach for Him and express our love for Him in every way that our heart has available. We are not concerned about what others think, in fact, we don’t even consider it! Our entire being is given over to one pursuit: connecting with Him… and that connection brings us the greatest joy, peace and love that we will ever know. And while it is true that we can not experience the complete fullness of that connectedness till we actually see Him face-to-face, it is also just as true that we often miss out on connecting with our Father, our bridegroom. It is possible right now. It is available each time we enter into worship.

Now… How does that impact your thinking about church this week? Yeah, me too.



Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=10150394422860707&comments