This afternoon is the culmination of a week of VBS with 105 amazing Peruvian kids. We are having a huge party, toy giveaway, and even alter call of the kids. This first week has been nothing like what I thought it would be…but then again, when has anything on the world race looked like what I thought it would look like? Exactly. Expectations are very rarely met but often exceeded in ways you didn’t realize possible. Our team has had the amazing opportunity to plan games in line with the bible story each day (the best job if you ask me..haha). We have had the amazing opportunity to play with the kids and watch as they come alive in the joy and excitement that I can only imagine mirrors the joy and excitement The Lord has for us each and every day. I have also been reading the book The Shack by William P. Young. It is an amazing fiction book that explores the depths of the Lords heart and who he is. Fiction? Yes. Truth? Yes. After a week of reading this book and watching these kids at play, I can’t help but be overwhelmed by who the Father is for us. He is so much more inviting than we ever give him credit for, even on our best days. He is so much more loving than we have opened up our hearts to receive, no matter how far along we might be on our journey. He is so much more, and He longs to show us the more of him. There was a scene in The Shack that I can’t get out of my mind. In this quote God is talking to Mack, the main character, about his love. This is a work of fiction, however this could not be any closer to the truth:
“Most birds were created to fly. Being grounded for them is a limitation within their ability to fly, not the other way around. You, on the other hand, were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around. Living unloved is like clipping a bird’s wings and removing its ability to fly. Not something I want for you. Mack, pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly. And if left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place. I’m not like you, Mack. I am God. I am who I am. And unlike you, my wings can’t be clipped.”
This quote has stuck with me for the entire week. How true is it that we really were created to live fully loved? How true is it that we allow pain or other situations in life to hold us back from fully receiving and living from a place of his love? I don’t know about you, but I want to live as one who is fully loved. The only way we can truly be loved is to be loved by love itself. Where are areas in your life that you find yourself trying to receive this love from other sources whether it be people, power, position, passions, or possessions? There are so many things in this world that leave us with a false sense of God’s love. Let’s press into the real thing and become a generation that lives fully loved!
(Pictures from VBS coming soon!)
