“I will make my dwelling with you.” (Leviticus 26:11 NASB)
It’s a post-garden promise that we can trace through every Old Testament book and straight into the gospel encounters of Jesus. His fully divine, fully man birth and ministry marked the start of a new era. Then in Acts, He poured out His Spirit, which dwells not just with us, but in us!
Yesterday I had lunch with a collection of women and toward the end of our time together, when most had begun to drift toward their afternoon commitments, a few of us remained. One brave gal shared how she couldn’t hardly get over how God was with her; more than walking by her side but carrying her as the Footprints poem insists. I couldn’t help but smile; Christmas is three months away but the thought of Immanuel warms my heart through every season. “God with us.”
Beloved, we experience the precursory fulfillment of a promise first uttered six thousand years ago. Let that wash over your soul for a moment. The New Testament tells us that the truth we walk in daily was mysterious to the pre-Christ generations and angels alike. They longed to understand and see divine fulfillment and we have both. Do we appreciate it? Do we revel in our spiritual connection?
I can’t speak for you, but sometimes I do. Occasionally I am completely overwhelmed by the nearness of God and the shared dwelling space of my heart. But if I’m brutally honest, sometimes I’m just busy, distracted or disengaged from the extraordinary fact that He lives in me. I’ve become accustomed to the truth that He walks with me, talks to me, longs to lead me in ways of righteousness and employ me to build His kingdom according to His flawless blueprints. I wonder if you are accustomed, also? Or maybe you haven’t realized how He wants to walk with you. I’m not special in that. He longs to do all those same things through you, too. Through any willing vessel, actually.
If we read the scriptures we’ll see He uses old people and young people alike. He employs blind people, sick people, even dead people resurrected again. He recruits fishers, farmers, tax collectors and prostitutes. He’s not picky about people. Our God is looking for ready flesh to fill up with His presence and implement into His agenda. This all sounds rather businesslike until we recall that His agenda is love, His agenda is restoring fallen folks to Himself.
Today I want to revel anew in His with-ness. I want to realize afresh that we are living in the near-fullness of what folks for four thousand years anticipated and imagined and pushed toward. I want to walk with my eyes peeled for divine footprints on the sandy shores of my life and I want to delight in His presence forever. How about you?
“And low, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
(Matthew 28:20b NASB)
Lord, Your with-ness is beyond our natural comprehension. Help us see in scripture the bare-faced beauty of what we walk in today. You live in us. May we delight in Your presence and not take it for granted a moment longer. Amen.