areliablefaith

Some of the things young children innocently come up with can be rather amusing… and poignant too. When our oldest daughter was young she fairly quickly grasped the meaning of the word REAL. However for some reason she got it in her mind that the opposite of real was not FAKE but rather PLASTIC. Her world was divided into that which was real and anything that wasn’t real was plastic. When she was 5 years old we took her and her 2-year-old little brother to King’s Island in Cincinnati. Not too long after we entered the park I heard Rhiannon squeal and shout, “Look it’s a Smurf” To which we all hurried over to meet the Smurf. I have pictures of Rhiannon and Jonathan hugging the Smurf. As the Smurf walked away I heard Rhiannon tell her little brother, “See, I told you we’d see something REAL!”

This morning as I think about that time I still chuckle remembering the earnestness in her voice. In her mind she had just met a REAL cartoon character and that was about the coolest thing ever.  I realize that my perspective as her father allowed me to see the reality of the person inside in a Smurf outfit. What was REAL was the person doing whatever they could to earn a living. Using Rhiannon’s own lingo of the time, the Smurf was really just PLASTIC, a facade of a character put on for an occasion.

You know our Heavenly Father sees perfectly.  He understands that we sometimes put on our Smurf suits to do whatever we can to get by.  We feel we won’t be accepted or taken seriously or loved if we don’t act / look / think a certain way.  We try to become something else other than who we are created to be.  The who we are created to be is a child of the King – a beloved daughter or son of the Lord God.  Unfortunately this truth is often hidden or, if perceived, hard to hold on to.  But it is a truth that God wants us all to know and to share.

As I write this I realize there are two groups of persons who may read this.  First are those who feel this way and struggle to gain an accurate picture of who God is and how valuable they are to Him.  Jesus specifically reaching out to them, speaking to them is hard to believe.  And yet that is the truth of all truths.  God loves you unconditionally.  He willingly died in your place so that you could be made whole.  Second are those who know this truth as a settled fact.  This group is responsible to live out the reality that God is REAL, His love is REAl, and our purpose is to know Him and make Him known.

My prayer today is that you gain and hold a clear picture of God and His transformative love for you.  That God speak to your deepest need and that you respond to the REALity of who He is and what He asks of you.  And that you find yourself wrapped in His love walking out your days in His peace and joy.