Connection

This has been a theme for me lately…am I connecting with my husband, with my kids and especially with my Savior? Connection can be defined in different ways, but meaningful connection is evident. I had the coolest experience tonight, and I want to try to paint a picture, but the task is daunting and it will be difficult to do it justice.

I was ready to spend some time in the Word this evening, and I felt compelled to sit outside. I love being outside, because it reduces distractions (ahem…children) that are in the house. I also just feel closer to my Creator when I'm experiencing His creation. My mother-in-law always sits outside early in the morning with the Lord, warm, cold, rainy, snowy. Tonight was beautiful, so I'm definitely a fair-weather outdoor quiet time fan. It is just different, and it facilitates deeper connection for me.

So, I get all settled at our table on the backyard patio with my water and bible and turn my music on. Again, I just had this feeling that I needed to change my Pandora station to a certain one (Kari Jobe Station, for inquiring minds).

I open my Bible App to my current plan, which is reading through the Bible and then open my Bible to Leviticus 8. I start reading, and I'm feeling a little guilty about being in chapter 8 and not having underlined one single word in this book yet. I'm trying to dig deeper and see what God wants to show me through the details of all the sacrifices, but all I can really think about is wondering how bad it must have smelled with all the dead animals and parts, even though it keeps saying it was a pleasing aroma. Then I'm wondering if the priests were rather large because they had to eat a lot of food, it seemed. So, you can imagine my mindset, not very spiritual, right?

Then, Captivate Us is playing on my phone and the wind picks up. I look up and a big dark cloud is descending over the backyard. The pecan tree is swaying in the wind and I sense a Presence, filled with power, but I don't feel afraid. Just in awe.

I try to continue reading a few more lines of Leviticus, and another song comes on with a line that says I'm the one who's loved you all your life. It just captured me. I closed my Bible, and looked up at the sky. The temperature dropped and it seemed like I was just being enveloped by this storm and that it may start raining any second. The songs continued to sing about God's love and goodness, and it felt like it was a mixed tape of love songs from God to me. Certain lyrics would bring tears to my eyes, because they were exactly the promises that I didn't know I desperately needed to hear.

Then, without warning, everything was completely still. Not one leaf was moving. The cloud was still there, but there was complete quiet. I was literally sitting in the peace with the storm around me, but unable to touch me. I experienced God's presence, maybe more strongly than I ever have, because I had absolute assurance that He was there with me.

To avoid sounding too cliche, I won't go into all the metaphors this brought to mind for me. I'm sure you can imagine, or even insert your own application.

I cringe to imagine missing that if I hadn't responded to Jesus's gentle nudge to step away from everything and just spend time with Him. As my boss recently said it, He wants us to come away with Him. My friend in devo this morning reminded me that He does want time with me. Another friend today asked me how I'm doing with resting in Him. He orchestrated all of that and then blew me away (literally and figuratively) because I simply sat outside and was present, waiting for Him to show up.

For the record, the wind started blowing again, the amazing love songs continued and I finished reading my chapters in Leviticus, Psalms, Proverbs and 1 Thessalonians. (Smart people wrote this plan…they knew to put some good, easier reads like Psalms with Leviticus.)