The Lord your God is in your midst
A mighty One who will save
He will quiet you with His love
He will exalt over you with loud singing...Zephaniah 3:17
God and I hugged each other
I was alone there with him
I was wrapped in a love blanket
A blanket of joy
I thought I heard Him singing
In my spirit we danced together
The Lord of the Cosmos
And his kid
Over five years ago I trudged with notes and briefcase through the winding halls of Sheridan College in the middle of winter. I was lost in a maze of halls and an unfamiliar world. I passed many young people and I knew I was the oldest one there and I wondered how they would view this old woman breaking into their world. What could she offer to a world of youth?
I had a vision and a passion back then that seems today to be a lifetime ago
I had been given a verse and over the years I have almost forgotten
Never forgotten but in the halls of learning the words and the vision had faded
"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and proclaim the captives will be released and prisoners will be heard." Isaiah 61:1
The book of Zephaniah reveals so much about God
It is hard to read and to process
Does God have many faces?
The two-sided nature of judgement and salvation
The prophet of gloom and the prophet of joy?
It starts with four "She has nots"
"She has not obeyed
She has not received
She has not trusted
She has not drawn near."
Then finishing with a mighty crescendo of His shout of joy
The sound of his singing and His calming lullaby as He wraps His arms around us
The Song of Joy
The lullaby of God for his children
Unimaginable joy
Inexpressible love
A grand oratorio
A great revival
God's love is a consuming fire
We can not just warm our hands with it
I have more questions than answers
I am just the storyteller
"For whom am I now and today?
Trembling, groping to find a way?
A heart of dreams and fears and walls
Of starts
And stops
Of peaks and falls
A life unpolished , profound
A sinner ransomed
Lost and found".......Evelyn Shirazes
The chapter that I had finished was the most difficult one in the book. It was the chapter about the years of the locusts and it described my journey to faith. A journey from religion and law to grace and love. I needed to do it with no hurt intended and my heart wanted to go in one direction but God kept nudging me back. Finally I took the road less travelled and Him and I walked that road together and that chapter may be just the pivotal one in the book that leads to hope and healing. It would have been easier to leave it out but God had another choice. When I put my pen down I knew that this vision that through all the distractions had blurred was shining once again in my face as I saw the light ahead.
So God and I hugged with joy
He was singing over me.
The children of the dance
It is not a misery story
It is written with freedom and hope
It is my story
It is their story
It is the voices of children
Raised in a chorus
Those who have gone before me
They are around me
In the memory of my heart
Of the forgotten children
The children of the dance
They are the once invisible children
That are seen by God
Never forgotten
By a God who sings over them
A lullaby of love ../June Smith
"It passes knowledge that dear love of thine
My Savior Jesus, yet this soul of mine
Would of thy love in all its breadth and length
In height and depth and everlasting strength
Know more and more
It passes praises, that dear love of thine
My Savior Jesus, yet this soul of mine
Would of thy love in all its breadth and length
In height and depth and everlasting strength
Know more and more
At last when Jesus, face to face I see
When at his lofty throne I bow the knee
Then of his love, in all its breadth and length
Its height and depth, its everlasting strength
My soul shall sing." /Mary Shackleton 1863
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