“Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.” ~Deuteronomy 7:9Lavish Defined:
Adjective: Sumptuously rich and elaborate.
Verb: Bestow something in generous or extravagant quantities upon.
“Jesus Loves Me This I Know” – Yes! The head knowledge of His love has always been there. Jesus loves all the little children of the world. Surely, I am in there somewhere. The heart knowledge? Have I always believed that He Lavishes His Unfailing Love on Me? … Not so much …
Until recently.
Back in February around Valentine’s Day, one of the ladies at our church was teaching about God’s Love and had passed out these adorable bookmarks for us. The bookmark I received was called “Abundance”. I liked it but really wanted the “Hope” bookmark that someone else had received. I even went up to her after class and asked if I could look at her bookmark. These bookmarks have images and Bible verses throughout the art. Later that night I went to the website, remenderings.com and placed an order for more. Then I really felt like I should email the owner – and I did. Here is one sentence from that email:
“This has been quite a year for me and it seems as if your drawings really hit home with many of those truths I am taking in.”
Her reply to me was precious and when I received my package she had written a note of encouragement and said she had included extra in my order for me and it was a pack of variety cards with guess which one was displayed on top for me? “Abundance”…again.
Now, go back about 8 months and I had heard a sermon on submission that had really unsettled me. It was one sentence that sent me reeling…. “For all she had to endure I have no doubt she will receive a crown of jewels in heaven”. I thought, “I don’t even want the crown!” Ironically, since then I have been all about crowns, pink, princesses, love, sparkle, glitter etc….
So last Sunday, as we were heading to church I was looking up some of the scripture references sipping a mocha and smiling…until I got to the verse about submission again and it all came back to me. I felt a huge tug on my heart and a deep whisper into my ear, “You have always had the crown. You were born with it!”
It was big. So big, that when I walked into class I just wanted to blurt it out to everyone: “Hey, if you don’t realize it – You were born with the crown – God made you a princess! You are a princess and you have always been!” I didn’t say anything because I could barely open my mouth – I was too overwhelmed with the message to my heart.
Then, in a room of seven ladies – the one who had passed out the bookmarks originally came in and handed me this: an 8 X 10 picture of Abundance…again…framed!
I said quietly, “Did you bring this for me to see?”
She said, “No, I brought it to give to you…It is in it’s original wrapping and I put it in this gold frame for you.” Amazed and in awe would be an understatement. As class started and discussion began I had tears welling up and felt like I was going to explode from the love fest, and the teacher asked me to read and YES, it was the submission verse! I am not sure I even got the last words out because the tears just began to fall down my cheeks. Then, as I went to take a sip of my coffee I choked LOUDLY and just had to excuse my mess of a self. I went into the bathroom and between crying and smiling – thinking me, who would not want anyone to even see me cry just let everyone see it. Me, who would worry what anyone would think about me…just broke down and I think they must think my marriage is in trouble or I have issues with submitting! While it is not perfect and I am not the most submissive woman on the planet – that is not it at ALL. It was simply that one sentence resonated so deeply with my hurt and God returned me to that hurt and poured his love and truth into my heart. On this day – he filled it to the top and then some.
After church, one of the girls texted me about the song GOLD, by Britt Nicole. She said it reminded her of the gold frame that surrounded that picture this morning. I told her I would check it out and that I planned to study the verses that were throughout that picture. First, I had to feed the family…and yes there are times when fast food just makes sense! After getting the table ready, I sat down to join them and looked at my beautiful daughter and saw this. My mouth just opened.
I said where did you get that? She said it was in my Happy Meal! I said – really? She said yes, Mom! It’s a crown. I said I know….. (Did you notice that even the swan in the crown has a crown??)
After lunch I studied the scripture that is in the abundance picture. I just went to the website and printed the scripture references that went along with the images… It was powerful. Very powerful.
When I stopped I decided to go to Michaels and at the stoplight, I see this:
Small rainbow, big promise!
His Covenant
This was one of those BIG days where God really got to me, but I had not written about it. It just seemed hard to describe. This morning at 4:30am with a dull headache lingering from yesterday – he said post. I was not feeling it. But I sat up and I started typing (struggling) until it was time to get ready for work…I took my phone into the bathroom and blasted “Saturate” by Cody Holley and sang it, prayed it, and loved it.
I stepped out of the shower and there was a text from a sweet friend who moved away several years ago … a text that said, “Hey friend, you have been on my mind so much the past 48 hours, so I have been praying for you and your sweet family. Just wanted to let you know and see if there is anything in particular that I should be praying about with you? Hope you are well. Sending love…..”
I immediately cried and replied, “Oh sweet obedient child. I am sobbing that the God of the universe would prompt you to not only pray for me but text me….I have been up since 4:30. God is doing really really big things in my life right now but it has not been easy and quite painful…But His love is big …So Big…”
She texted back “Wow, and how blessed I am that our Heavenly Father would use a sinner like me to touch you right when you need it?!! I sit in awe of how he works. What an incredible tapestry He weaves as He connects our lives..”
I replied, “I know!!! Thank you for being obedient to push send!! It has changed my whole day for me and lifted my head two inches higher!!”
She replied, ” 🙂 🙂 Changed my day, too! All smiles & can feel the happy down to my toes!! 🙂 :)”
Push Send Ladies. Encourage each other. God loves us big and some of the biggest ways that is revealed is when we are obedient. When we send that email or we share something with someone. The enemy would want you to think you will look silly, foolish…. but you hold your head high and press send, mail the card, make the call, buy the gift… encourage!
One of the biggest lessons I have learned recently is this: I experience his LAVISH LOVE when I obey his prompts. I am typically uncomfortable, quite reserved and very stubborn, but lately when I feel prompted to press send or speak, (and I still may hesitate) ….when I finally push send ….. that is when I see his LAVISH LOVE on display. He crowns us with love and compassion!
Thanks for sharing this story. It has blessed me. It is awesome to know that God will go to any length to show us His love.
I love reading your story and seeing where you are in your journey! Did you notice the fountain even looks a bit like the crown that the swan was wearing? The water formed a circlet underneath it and the spray was in the same shape as the swan’s crown. So good! God is pretty awesome.