The Ultimate Scientiste

They're building a sea wall down by the bay. Eric and I walk or ride by it everyday. Most days it looks like there's just nothing getting done. It's a mess of cement and stone and workers and machines. Then one day, sure enough it actually looked like a sea wall. But they weren't finished. It was being made into art.
For weeks there's been a confusing mosaic of flat stones spread out over the street. The workers were cutting them and sanding them and trying to see how they would fit together.
Then yesterday...boom! There's this tapestry of close fitting stones completely covering the wall. It's beautiful and so pleasing. It actually competes with the view of the bay.
I think this world, our lives, our relationships are like that wall. Sometimes, we look like a confusing mess, forgotten and kicked around in the street. But one day, we will all come together and the beauty of our tapestry will teach the torches to burn bright.

Eph. 2:21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit...

'Fitly framed together' sounds so fulfilling and so comfy.


and the mortar is Love...

Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: 16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Even the guy at the Bible study who I run away from and Eric endures with patience and grace, is being chiseled into a piece of our wall. Okay, so I hope my piece isn't right next to his...that's something God's gotta sand out of my heart. Maybe I'll make him some cookies :)

mystery of marriage

Jesus performed his first public miracle at a wedding, turning water into wine. That's kind of what marriage does. It takes plain old life (water) and turns into something magic (wine.) Eric wrote me a song once that compared me to 'fine wine.' That's the mystery of marriage, it can turn into 'fine wine.'

The process isn't as easy as Jesus saying 'fill these six clay vessels with water' and, presto! the best wine ever served at a wedding. It's more like real aged wine.

Two souls are intermingled to create a 'One.' This joining is a symbol of our relationship with God. It is a sacred and holy thing.

It's also a funny and annoying thing! Two opposites that are attracted to each other... the masculine and the feminine, the open and hidden, the solid and the soft. How can two human beings flawed and imperfect, different in so many ways create a 'One?'

One way is by tuning into the other's 'love language,' the actions that say, 'I love you,' louder than words. It could be making and eating dinner together or listening to the other's dreams in bed in the morning. Both of these create that essence of 'One.' They enable us to really listen to and get to know the other's soul. What is it that fills him with delight in life? How can I help her to feel the joy of creation and creating? What dreams can we share for our life together? The magic in a marriage has to do with the little things, the everyday conversations and interactions and acts that say, "we are 'One.'"

Like David crying out to God in the Psalms, a stomped foot and a tearful voice, are much better than silence. We need to tell the Lord our heart's desires and even more so our spouses. Maybe that's why God provided PMS to be sure the dirty socks piling up get laundered once a month. And over all this genuineness and vision into each other's souls.... may humor reign. The Bible says that love covers over a multitude of sins....well I think that humor covers over a multitude of faults. If we can laugh together at ourselves and our situations and give them over God, we can build a 'fine wine' magical marriage.

The really cool thing is that so much of this applies to our relationship to the Creator. He longs to be constantly in touch with us, with the little things, the everyday interactions. He wants to be 'One' with us in our dreams and visions for life. He even wants to laugh with us and help us clean out the dirty socks piling up in our lives. Let's seek Him anew each morning and let Him turn our lives into 'fine wine' brimming over with His Spirit.