A good cup of coffee and savory breakfast complements my morning musing with God. The song ‘Reckless Love‘ is playing over and over in my mind. I allow God to take those words and work in me His morning devotion. I reflect on the moments spent with Maggie in the kitchen and am drawn to our conversation of pie weights. Pie weights are used to keep an unfilled pie crust from puffing up and shrinking away from the sides of the pan. How do pie weights muse with reckless love?
Pie weights are like the words of God, the holy scriptures found in the Bible. The parchment paper that Maggie placed between the dry beans and the pie dough is like Jesus, the Messiah. And the oven is life. Some only feel the weight of the commandments in scripture to be burdens carried drudgingly, or to cast aside. Problem is, life heats up like a 400 degree oven and the steam begins to build inside. No weights to stabilize and you get all twisted and bent out of shape. We are all in a transition of transformation on this side of eternity, being perfected for the other side of eternity.
Not all things written in the Bible are weighty to me. Some things really are. It was difficult in the early years of my faith with some areas of my life bubbled and warped. As I got to know God, spent time with Him, and fell in love with Jesus, I found the heat of life was no longer warping me but it was perfecting me into something better. Jesus is the key to me being able to tranform under the weight of God’s word while in the heat of life.
Talk with God through prayer, listen to God through Bible reading, connect with God through creative worship – each of these on varying levels protect and guide me through. My Beloved was most connected with God during studying of scripture: I most connect with God through song. My heart sings, even when my mouth can’t remember all the words. On occasion, I have conversations in song lyrics – a melodious dialogue.
I reflect back upon those moments of life that I felt the weight of God upon me and what I see is a God who loves me so recklessly, that He chased me down, He fought till I was found, He searched me out, He gave me what I did not deserve, He kept me from pains I did deserve, and He gave up everything to do it. He was ignored, shamed, abandoned, ridiculed, beaten, and killed. For me – He loves me that much. For you – He loves you that much.
I sing the melody of “Reckless Love” over and over. Sometimes I belt out a line or two (I really should learn the full lyrics). Specific writings and parables are brought to mind so I pull a Bible off the shelf and listen to the words of God. Come to the table and listen with me…
it chases me down, (Luke 15:11-32)
fights ’til I’m found, (Daniel 10)
leaves the ninety-nine (Luke 15:1-7)
I couldn’t earn it, (Romans 3:21-26)
and I don’t deserve it, (Romans 3:9-20)
still, You give Yourself away (Romans 5:6-8)
O, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God (3:16-17)
(The following links will open another window for the web site I use for scripture, and to a YouTube video posted from the church my Beloved and I attended before we were married)
The scripture references above are from my personal devotional, BEFORE I listened song in the video with Pastor Daniel‘s teaching. How loved am I to have such confirmation that my private time is aligned to public teaching He called Lifepoint Church! It is humbling, it is overwhelming.  – Joyfully, Sheila