The other day as I was clocking out of work I started talking to Jottie (one of the other counselors). We were talking about the big changes that are right around the corner for both of us. I am about to leave for the World Race and he is about to move to Colorado. We were both expressing how hard it is going to be to leave the kids that we work with. I told him that as hard as it is, I feel like God has so much work He wants to do in me during this trip. At first, I went into the World Race with the mentality that all these people around the world needed my help. But I believe God was looking at me saying, ” you need them just as bad, if not more than they need you.” Jottie said “It’s good you see that because sometimes we get so caught up in serving that we miss what God is trying to do in us.” Then he said, “I had a friend stop me one time and ask me if I had ever taken the time to ask God what He thinks of me, and I hadn’t….so I started asking God what He thinks of me. It has been crazy to see the way He responds.” He proceeded to tell me that one time after asking God that question, he felt like God was asking him what his favorite meal was and telling him that He wanted to take him out to eat to spend time with him.
Jottie then challenged me to try asking God what he thought of me.
After hearing that he got to go out for his favorite meal, I was totally down. 🙂 So on my way home from work, I said, “God, I want to know what you think of me?” I did not get an immediate response and I kind of forgot I even asked the question after a couple of minutes had passed. But then God started bringing to my mind all the people he has placed in my life here recently. My first response was, “God, I have been longing for good Christian relationships for so long. Why now? Why do you wait and then suddenly put all these people in my life a month before I leave the country? I don’t want to get attached now. It’s time for me to go.”
But then I felt like God said to me, “I have strategically placed each of these people that have blessed you, in your life because I love you. Whether you are here for a month or for ten years, I want to give you what you need and more. Consider them my LOVE LETTERS to you. I send you mail all the time but sometimes you don’t even look at it long enough to determine who it’s from. If you want to know what I think of you, start reading your mail! I will never stop sending these love letters. Don’t let them pile up and be thrown out because you are so busy trying to write love letters for everyone else. Open each one and receive the love I am sending you. The people you are trying to minister to, need you to show them how to read my love letters. I promise that will do them much more good than any love letter you write.”
Wow!…is all I could say to that. Since then I have started to recognize not only people but nature, situations, conversations, songs…..as love letters from God. Anyone who cares to write that much… must love who I am, truly treasure our relationship, and long for me to think about Him as much as He thinks about me.
