Captured

This morning I stared at myself in the mirror for about ten minutes and just cried. My lip shaking, eyes blurry, and tears rolling down my face, I stared redemption in the face. It was a beautiful thing.

It’s such a gift to walk in redemption. As a woman who never has the words to describe her joy and thanks for such a costly gift, I embraced those ten minutes this morning. To be able to look in the mirror and know that I am redeemed, stamped with approval, accepted, and received by a gracious Lover is a gift I never feel adequate enough to receive. But I receive the love of forgiveness because it’s lovingly offered by a loving Father. It causes me to cling to Him. Nothing is as precious as receiving hugs from the One who blots out transgressions, never to remember them again. You better believe I hungrily love the One who always pursued me when no one else did.

A week before I had this encounter I had a glimpse of the power of redemption. While at the OneThing conference over New Years, I received several flash backs of my childhood. God showed me the time I crept to the woods all alone crying out for someone to acknowledge my existence, the times I used to ride my bike thinking about how much I desired to be loved, and even that one week when I was 7 years old when I snuck in the back of the sanctuary of Vacation Bible School at a church I never before stepped foot in, because something in me hoped I’d receive what I desperately longed for. At the conference, in a peak moment of yearning to just wrap my arms around Him, Jesus whispered to me, “I was there, I was there!” While my arms were reaching for the Heavens He reached down, too, and I experienced an indescribable moment with my Savior that no one could possibly fathom, even if it were thoroughly described.

How does a woman who’s little girl inside feeds off His love control that defining moment in her life where her Lover tenderly says in an audible WHISPER, “THIS is how much you mean to Me”?

On another note, I had a list of things I had planned to do today, but instead I got a love letter from my Prince. It severed me, in a good way. It went a little something like this:

A phone call came in this afternoon from a man I rarely see once a week. The Word of the Lord was on Him, and God’s UNDYING pursuit of me was revealed to me in a brighter light. It was a light that caused my face to quench, my eyes to flood with tears and my mouth to hang open with a desperate cry of “MY PRINCE! MY PRINCE! YOU ARE MY ONE AND ONLY PRINCE!”

Not only was God’s supernatural touch revealed to me through an ordinary man, but He confirmed what’s been pondering in my heart since I came to know Him. Beyond that, He spoke a love poem over me that brought me to tears of pure joy. I later began to giggle thinking, “You really know how to capture my heart, don’t You? You can pass some of that along to my future husband, too! ;)”

After re-reading the Lord's Word that I had typed out as it was being spoken, God told me it was my first love poem for 2008. Ah :) I love that what He has to say sometimes comes in the form of the gift He’s planted in my heart (writing). It ravishes me.

My Prince has yet again scooped me in His loving arms and danced with the beautiful me He longed to know since March 24th, 1985. Not a man in the world could ever compare to this love I rejoice about every day!