"My Blog Lesson For Today" continues

I received a very wonderful comment/reply to the last post "My Blog Lesson For Today." in fact, I posted that entry at two of my blogs and got wonderful, thoughtful replies at both of them. "Ain't God grand?"

I found that replying to the commenters was getting to be very long, and I hadn't even gotten into what either one had said yet. So, I decided to continue blogging the topic for a few more entries. Here's "Part One: The Continuing Blog Lesson:"

Hi, Heather.

First off, Yes, you could (note, I did not say "should," though) very easily have your own blog. You write very well; get your point across well and clearly.

Blogging is a matter of "bravery" -- though, at first, when I knew no one was reading them, it was easy. Then I began to think about when someone might start to read it and almost stopped. And scarier still, since I have at least one of my blogs in the signature line of the e-mail account I use most often, sooner or later FAMILY might stumble on to it.

It makes me self-edit a little more, that's all. :-)

Thank you for the wonderful reply comment to my post on "My Blog Lesson For Today." As I wrote it, I was just trying to get the things I had been thinking about lately into some kind of orderly presentation. Mostly for my own good -- to have it "on paper" and in front of me.

When I needed to understand something, even when it came to school work, I often explained them to my mom. She would listen, ask questions that showed she had really paid attention. Even when it was a subject I know she had absolutely no interest in. Mom was wonderful that way. I thought I was unique in telling mom these kinds of things, but at her funeral last year, my brother made the same comment about how mom listened to anything he told her as if it was the most fascinating subject in the world to her, too, not just him. Since mom died, of leukemia, a little over a year ago, I haven't had my wonderful audience that listened and gave appropriate, and usually affirming, feedback.

It's the stupid, little comments that come out once in a while that are sometimes the most profound.

And while mom was sick, I tried to give her a card everyday. One day I wrote in it, "God loves you as much as we do." She had smiled so sweetly at that. I then verbally added, "He loves you even more than we do." Her smile got bigger. But it hit me hard. He DOES love us even more than we love one another. DUH! It's so obvious, once I saw it, but somehow "God is Love" just didn't seem so big, huge and awesome before that. "God is Love" means "God Loves!"

I write out a lot of what I would have been talking about with mom in our daily phone conversations. Some of it may be a little more self-revealing than perhaps I would usually make public, but if it seems to have a truth in it that someone else could benefit from, I'll throw into a blog. This one, "My Blog Lesson ...", actually went into two of them.

God loves me in a BIG way. And He wants me to be His friend and He wants to be my friend. WOW! And, He is showing me, that prayer is not the formula I learned in Sunday School (confession followed by praise followed by supplication followed by thanksgiving followed by more praise) - it is talking to Him as if I was on the phone with mom or one of my friends. He'll listen. He'll even help me clarify my thinking about an issue, a project, a subject I don't understand. The help may not be as audible as mom's voice at the other end of the phone line. But it is just as real and even better.

Mom and I used to chit chat as well as talk about things that were happening or what plans we had for the coming week. My friends and I talk about just about any subject that pops into our heads -- kind of a stream of consciousness thing, letting one subject blend into another because some word one of us said reminds of something we read or heard recently which in turn reminds one of us of a book we read way back in high school and on and on it goes.

Having a "conversation" with God -- well, I guess I got sort of hung up in the fact He generally does not audibly talk back right away. Prayer was work and not fun in the past. I'm learning I can sit down and say, "You know that story idea that seemed to pop into my head from no where the other day, what do You think? Should I run with it or run from it?" Or I can just say, "Did You see that lightening last night? WOW! What a sight; I got some awesome photos of it all. I'm glad it wasn't here, but I sure feel bad for the people that storm stalled over, though -- five hours of rain and thunder. Must have been hard to sleep through all that." Sure, I know He saw the lightening. And I know some of the people in the church where I grew up would be very aghast that anyone would talk to God in such a casual way. But, if He really is my FRIEND, then ceremony and pomp are not necessary.

Paul writes that because we have so great a High Priest, who is our mediator, that we should "come BOLDLY then to the throne of grace." Perhaps, not as casually as I do -- but I know one thing:

The story of Queen Esther teaches me about God's love for me. When Esther went to the king, it was not easy to do. It meant travelling by chariot or slave-carried litter from her Queen's palace, miles away (but within the same palace grounds), walking up a long corridor of relief sculptures all designed to prove how great and powerful the king was and how insignificant the guest was, then enter the throne room through big, huge, heavy double doors twenty or thirty feet tall (I don't remember the exact details from the Art History course I had). On top of that, it was illegal to enter the throne room unless sent for. To enter was a death sentence.

It is a symbol of the Holy of Holies of the Jewish Tabernacle, or later the Temple. And it was punishable by death to enter there if you were not the one who was allowed to enter, and only after certain preparations were made.

However, the King loved his wife so much that he immediately held out his scepter to her to indicate his approval of her presence there.

God loves us more than any person can love another person. He extends His scepter to us every time. He welcomes us, hears us and smiles on us for coming.