Only God's Love is True!!
I'll never forget the first time that I saw The Little Mermaid! Can I just admit that I was 12 when this awesome movie first hit the big screen!! You do the math..Ahhh!! This honest testimony thing is for the birds..!! Ok Ok..back to the story...!! When I first saw Ariel dazzled by Prince Eric, and when I first heard her sing her song, "Part of your World", I began to fall in love with Love!! We must stop in the name of "Love" right here and ponder what love to which I'm actually referring!! You see..there is LOVE..as in the love of God and then there is Hollywood!!! Friends, there is sooo much out there to deceive and to distract you from the authentic Love of God that we all ought to just be shocked to find ourselves safe in His arms. How on earth do we find God in all the cleverly planned tactics of the roaring Lion..or the Menacing Seawitch?? The truth is that we do not find God..He finds us!!
1 John 4 is very clear that God first loved us that we might love Him!! Furthermore, the Scriptures point out in the book of Jonah, God was pursuing the redemption of the lost people in this world! Sorry for delaying my story a bit...but all this Little Mermaid fish talk made me think of Jonah and the whale again!!
So, to continue my whale of a tale..I'll just say that there is definitely something dangerous about fairytales!! The problem is that they are dangerously close to something God did intend for us, and yet..as we've already discussed in previous posts, close to God's will doesn't cut it does it?? As well, we've discovered that our version of God's will for us ends up taking us to Spain (Tarshish)..when we should be in Iraq (Nineveh)! O.k. so there I was at the age of 12 and captivated by an image of perfect love, handsome princes and beautiful endings..!! My little heart, so captivated by God's word had now been outsourcing! Yes, parents..you give them and inch and "they swim all over you!" To explain, God can be your unadulterated source of wisdom, and in contrast, God can be the commentator that drops a few good thoughts on the life that you are having planned by someone else: you! The world is very good at dangling delectable desires in front of us and wrapping them up with satin ribbons and placing them in pretty packages. Oh how beautiful the whole package looks to us; when things seem beautiful they must be good for us!! WARNING!! So, here was Ariel, and her love story was beautiful!! Yes, my heart soared and my thoughts were captivated! I began to imagine, "what a beautiful image of what God will bring about in my life." Sadly, I no longer wanted whatever God might bring my way...I wanted the fairytale..and I wanted the magic pixie dust.. power, the happy ending!!
May we never forget that the tempter, the devil, masquerades around your life as a beautiful angel of light..(Like the Little Mermaid in 3-D)!!
Now, a love story...not really...!!
The beautiful sandy beaches of Southern California were calling my name! I began to wiggle my toes in my little socks, still warming my frozen feet, made cold by the chill and frost of a mid-western winter. To be sure, I could just feel the sand that would soon be between each toe in just a few weeks. We had moved to Kansas City, KS and I was now 13!! Growing up in Southern California, in a suburb of Los Angeles, South Pasadena, meant that I was well accustomed to the warm sun and a beautiful beach!! In fact, moving to Seattle at the age of 9 was a shock to say the least. Truly, I love the beautiful Northwest and I always will, so I'm not ragging on Washington...!! Thankfully, we still had the Pacific ocean around and lots of Sea gulls and coastal dreams. Yet, the move to Kansas City, Ks at the age of 12 was leaving me a little bit without the water?? However, I have to say that the sunsets were gorgeous and there is a whole romantic thing going on with fire flies and beautiful skies! Still, there was not an ocean in sight and the sand was calling my name! When my father, Dan Little, had announced that we would be going to Southern California for a visit, every bit of my 13 year old self just leapt for joy!! Moves are always a bit tough, because they involve change and change can be difficult!! Therefore, changing schools in the middle of Jr. High made life a little less than stable for me..Ha!! Although, the reason for the move was so amazing to me: my Dad was going to help bring medicines to our missionaries! Still, Dad and Mom had been very busy getting a new ministry, Nazarene Pharmaceutical Relief, underway at Nazarene headquarters and our family needed to hear the word, beach!! Moreover, when your world has been flipped up side down and you are finding it hard to fit in somewhere, you normally revert back to a place where you had last felt stable or at home! Hopefully for most of us that place is in the arms of Jesus. For me, that place was California..where I couldn't wait to smell the salty sea and touch the grainy sand! To be honest, I'm going to blame some of that on The Little Mermaid, the movie that had just charmed my little heart!! Of course my escape to the beach had to include a little bit of summer love; well I had to find Prince Eric if my safety net was going to really see me through to a happy ending, didn't I? My dream had better look like the perfect plan I'd seen on the movie screen; surely that plan would bring the joy I craved!! Amazing isn't it?? How subtle is the switch, the signature on the dotted line, when we choose something else to be more important than the Love of God. I'm going to let you in on something about your Lord!! You know the Lord, right?? The Lord who is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the one who loved you sooo much that He sent His only Son to die that you might live!! Well what in the world happens to us all as we are growing up in the Lord! Where do we miss the connection?? Why don't we make the right love connection, huh?? Perhaps the key difference is somewhere between knowing about God while living in a dark world and knowing God. What happened to my understanding about God? Did you know that when I was 9 and studying God's Word, receiving all the answers to my burning questions, and falling in Love with my Savior, I had simply loved all that I knew about Him; I did not understand how personally I could have loved Him! Oh yes, God is sooo personal...!! Most regrettably, I did not know that God was not only a King, but a Father, a Husband, a Comforter, a friend, and a Savior! So when the prince of this world offered something to me that I needed, something that I did not know God could give, I accepted; many of us put another's ring on our finger when we do not understand that God's proposal is sitting on the table! Eventually, the seemingly innocent fantasies we have as little children become dangerous misconceptions about love! So, I guess I'd better tell you about a boy I met at age 13, on a beach in beautiful Southern California, right?? Imagine seeing a place you had missed for several years and dreamed about often! The excitement was growing as we drove up to my Grandmother's beach home in San Clemente beach where we were going to spend a whole week! The setting was perfect and so wonderfully familiar, with memories of perfectly serene times flooding my mind and promising to return. Yes, the mood was just right and there was a sweet calming assurance in the air. Finally, we descended a winding staircase that led straight over the railroad tracks and onto the sand. Running ahead of everyone, I reached the edge of the sand and flung my sandals off of my feet, determined to touch the sand with both feet exposed to its warming textures. The ocean was right there in front of me and its song just carried me down the shore where I found a perfect place for my towel. Laying down immediately, I began to feel the warmth and peace of the sunlight mixed with the soothing song of the tides going in and out in perfect rhythm. The waves were crashing and the sun was brilliantly shining down onto the golden sand. Every single breeze, full of salty smells and California dreams played with my senses as I rested in safety on my towel! Suddenly, out of the water, with the sun reflecting off his board...I saw him! Alright..we had better end there...I'll tell you the rest in Little Mermaid II tomorrow! For tonight I'd like to leave you with a Scripture.... Mark 10:17-18 declares,
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.
So many things out there seem good, but there is but one God, who is Good and but one love, and His name is Jesus!!
Also consider...
Matthew 12:38-40
New International Version (NIV)
The Sign of Jonah
38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” 39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
We always seem to want a sign that God is good don't we?? We run after many worthless things and demand nothing, simply accepting that good was promised! Not so with our Savior, we run away..and we demand to know if He really is good don't we?? What a concept to ponder that the only direction God ran was unto us, upon that rugged cross where He died to save us! Now, that's romantic!!
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