God is Love

I am reading out of a new devotional this year, "God calling" Journal. Today's was especially good. This is part of that devotion for April 16th.

Dwell on the thought; God is Love. Link it up with Me "I and my Father are one". Dwell on My actions on earth. See in them Love in operation. If it was God who so acted, then it was Love, Perfect Love, performed those actions, those wonders. Then you too, must put Love (God) into action in your lives. Perfect Love means perfect forgiveness. Lo, my children, you see that where God is there can be no lack of forgiveness, for that is really a lack of love.
God is Love... no judging
God is Love... no resentment
God is Love... all patience
God is Love... all power
God is Lvoe...all supply.

I hope something bothered you!

Friday night we went to a Good Friday service. We had a friend's 6 year old with us. I am obviously not in the child mode and didn't realize the child care at church only went to pre-K on this service so didn't take things to entertain a 6 year old. She did really great through the darkened song service but when the preaching started I knew it would be a long challenge. We love our worship; but we're adults. It could be a bit long and drawn out to a bored 6 year old. Tyler ripped out a couple of blank pages out of his notebook and she began to write the alphabet. Then I wrote on a piece of paper, "I love Jesus". She copied it except she made a heart instead of love. She worked really hard on the picture and then without warning held it slowly up high above her head. My first reaction was to gentle pull her hands down. She just smiled at me and went on writing. About 3 minutes later, she had added many more "I love Jesus" and once again held the picture slowly up above her head. I let it go. Partially because I thought if she had gone to all that work to make a picture she should be able to raise her hands in praise just like several people did during the singing. Then I did it; I thought about the people behind me. What will they think? Is she bothering them? Is this one of those moments pastor talks about "if your children get too exhuberant in worship, please let them express themselves in the foyer" moments? Then I thought again; I hope it bothers the people in back of me. I hope they see the pure innocence of a child expressing her love for Jesus. I hope she makes them think about what Good Friday is all about. I hope they are bothered; really bothered. I hope they think about the cost of the sacrifice of Jesus and not the inconvenience of a 6 year old holding a sign up.... telling how much she loves this Jesus... that was put to death on the cross. Several times she wrote on her paper, then slowly almost reverently lifted it high above her head. I don't know what the people behind me thought; but I hope it bothered them. I wished it would have bothered them enough to get out paper of their own and begin writing notes. It would have been so cool to have pieces of paper all over the sanctuary being held up; "I love Jesus", "Thank you Jesus", "You are my Redeemer". It would have been awesome if Pastor Paul couldn't even finish speaking because the papers would be so distracting. It would have been breathtaking if the service closed with people bringing their love notes and laying them at the front as they took communion. It would have been awesome had the stage been cluttered with papers of all kind sharing how much they loved Jesus.
It didn't happen but it would have been another picture of how the pure and innocent love of a child toward Jesus could rub off on the people who think they got it all together. So to those sitting behind us in church, if it bothered you I hope you saw the beauty. And for those of you who were at Good Friday services; I hope something bothered you enough to leave different from when you came.