incredible love

Saturday, December 22, 2012 (10:24a.m. CDT)

Justin's Forest Park Living Room

Birmingham, AL

Incredibly Loving Father God,

Thank You! We followed our instincts and did what seemed to be the 'right' thing at the time. We flew on the day that was supposed to be the end of the world. And here we are waking up in our son's bed. Safe. Sound. And incredibly loved. Thank You Father.

(12:14 p.m.)

It is thoughts of Your incredible love for us that keep grabbing my attention this day. I am so blessed to be Your child (1John 3:1 - Phillips).

We met a variety of people yesterday. People who were friendly. Accommodating. Kind. In over ten hours of travel time, there were very few that weren't putting their best foot forward. This, I choose to believe is further evidence of Your work in people.

The Message has two passages that give me pause this morning. I love the way Job's words are paraphrased in chapter 10, verses 8-12. “You made me like a handcrafted piece of pottery – and now are you going to smash me to pieces? Don't you remember how beautifully you worked my clay? Will you reduce me now to a mud pie? Oh, that marvel of conception of as You stirred together semen and ovum – What a miracle of skin and bone, muscle and brain! You gave me life itself, and incredible love. You watched and guarded every breath I took.” Such poetry used to describe Your incredible love for us.

Poetic as that is, Ephesians 2:1-6 speaks of our being Made Alive in Christ. “It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose His temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, He embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on His own, with no help from us. Then He picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.”

Father, I cannot even begin to thank You enough for Your incredible love of us. Continue teaching me to use it lavishly, freely, carefully as the sacred gift that it is.

Here we are, coming together to celebrate the greatest example of incredible love (John 3:16) the birth of Your beloved Son. Enable us to use this time to worship and honor You as You so rightly deserve.

It IS in Your Son's most holy name that I pray asking You to make me worthy of Your incredible love. Thank You Father. I love You. Amen.

(505 words ~ 12:54 p.m.)