Cherish

Lord, no one can tell another of the individual path in this life that you will choose for them unless you give divine knowledge - the one by which you will lead them to truly know you better and to refine the character of their spirit. Your plans are your own and your wisdom beyond our capacity to predict. You alone are the omniscient God who crafts the pathways of men who follow you in order to respond to the deepest needs that we have not the wisdom to even be aware of. The trials and triumphs you make available to each life are as unique as those you have chosen to create because you alone know the full measure and ways of refinement necessary to mold each of us futher into your image.

But all of the paths you chart for our lives lead us in the same direction. If we choose to follow them in sincerity and faith, the path you choose for every life leads us to the feet of your throne. The hills we are made to climb and obstacles that you set before us in this life are never to conquer us, but instead only to increase our endurance and improve the quality of our spirit. You know always that your ability to rescue us is far greater than any situation we could find ourselves in. As our Father, you teach us and make us strong because if we're not tried, our roots in you remain weak and shallow. If our own wisdom is not challenged, then we'll never understand the value of yours. And if our understanding and perspective are never troubled, we would have no reason to abandon them for the true understanding and perspective of you, our perfect God.

Your intentions are always for our good without fail. In truth, if we see them in any other way then it's only because we lack your perspective and understanding. The moments of our fearful loss in this world are your patient efforts to bless us in the eternal moments ahead. If we dread death in this life it's only because we lack perspective to grasp the truth of your promise in the life you created us for. Your patience and understanding so far surpass our own that we struggle to have a glimmer of your perspective. But your faithful and knowing wisdom guides our lives even against our own childish will to prosper us for eternity as the perfect Father you are. You dote on us as a most prized possession, seeking at every turn to make us shine as the greatest treasure of your heart. Indeed we do belong to you great God. It was your heart that conceived of us, your hands that molded us from the dust and your breath in us that gives us life. When the ancestor of man sold us into the slavery of sin in unfaithfulness, it was with the blood of your own body and from deep within the depths of your own heart that you bought us back again. Indeed we belong to you God.

But even given all that you are to us, there are still those who don't know you. No one can know another by remaining estranged, and no one can know the full measure of God in our time on this earth. But for those who will in the deepest honesty take the time to seek you in earnest, those who will come to hunger to really know you, ... your spirit comes as a rushing wind moving mightily and speaking softly. Words of understanding and wisdom and urgings in directions we might not choose on our own are the ways by which you guide us. Only when we listen to your voice and follow the direction of your spirit do we move toward you and find our reward. We then move on in faith guided by your Spirit on a quest to quench our thirst for you only to find that though you satisfy the thirst, our hunger to know you better only grows more insatiable. The table of life that you spread before us is laden with the fruits of your spirit and the purity and sweetness of each is intoxicating and addicting. There is no one like you Lord and knowing you is worthy of any price.

Anything that we may come to know of you is well worth the cost in our faith and obedience. Your greatness exceeds our mortal capacity to know in full, but what we may know creates a driving need to know you even more and gives us secure hope in a world spiraling into the depths of despair, disease and disillusion. As we come to know you more, we cease to question the righteousness of the wisdom that allows what you will, for it's beyond the wisdom mortals can begin to know and the faithfulness of your heart proves to be unquestionable. Those who truly know you to any measurable extent cannot question the righteousness of your ways as you allow them to be known to us, and in faith we begin to echo in decree what you have declared to be true. Your ways are proven and righteous in all things beyond our own and the purity and sweet spirit of them becomes the essence of what we come to long for insatiably. Indeed Lord, it is you that we come to cherish far beyond anything else.

When the worlds' business of life presses us and struggles to occupy our every wakeful thought, it takes only one thoughtful remembrance of your great works to bring it all rushing back. Suddenly our minds race with thoughts of praise and worship and our hearts swell with deep love for our God. When the world would strive to steal our joy, the very breath of life you gave us, it only takes a moment to find ourselves immersed once again in your life spring. In that moment we're surrounded by your loving arms and reminded that you hold our lives and our destiny safe. We're never awash in this life alone vulnerable to the will of this world. Our way is made by the hand of our omnipotent Father alone and however the world would try to convince us that we're subject to its malevolent mercy, we know the absolute and divine truth of our destiny.

When we get distracted by hardships and cares of this world that we don't even belong to, it only takes a moments' thought to be reminded of our place in your heart. In that instant we're lifted above it all to be reminded that we walk as princes and princesses not in this world, but in the much higher and divine kingdom of our all powerful and supreme God. Lord, how we long for the Heaven that your hands have created and the home you've promised us there. How the joys of true relationship with you answer the otherwise unanswerable longings of our hearts. How the joys of your fruitful spirit leave our otherwise disappointed spirits content. How your certain security leaves us confident and your faithfulness providing our untouchable and eternal hope. There is nothing left to need or desire, your fullness provides more than we could ever want for. Knowing you Lord, God, Father and incomparable friend to your children, it is you that we cherish above all else!