This was the piece I presented as the kick-off for our conference on Friday evening.
God’s ideas were brilliant and
bubbling. The energy coming from
the relationships in heaven had grown until their joy was ready to burst
Heaven’s seams. And now the
Father’s desire was growing in anticipation of what could happen if there were
more beings who had the capacity to create beauty, to live for truth and good,
and who, like the three of them, would exist to love.
At a moment in timelessness He
began to lay the groundwork so that all of this joy could be shared. He may have considered just splashing
it randomly around the soon-to-be-created universe, but obviously decided in
the end that it would be far better to shape vessels that could each display
some small parts of Him and whose power would be discovered through the way
they needed and cared for one another.
(On earth as it is in Heaven.)
He started by taking hold of the
void and pulling on it firmly to tug light this way and dark the other, shaping
it into a circle so that it would keep rolling and rolling--as day and
night--as long as the universe existed.
Five more days followed that remarkable start, finding Him designing
container after container, as He re- presented Himself on every inch of His
earthly canvas. And He tucked much
so far away and so deep within that it would take all the available years on
earth for us to discover the layers that were there. Picture His delight as He leads and watches, waiting for us
to find the treasures.
His character is all through the
created world. Is there any
question that He is mountain majestic, oak tree patient, or ocean wave
faithful? Millions and millions of
ideas were lavishly spilled out until the moment that God paused and took a day
off just to look around leisurely and enjoy the beauty and potent message of
His masterpiece.
But the perfection took a fatal
turn almost immediately when the first woman and man grabbed the tablecloth of
the garden, and shook all the beauty of His spectacular dinner party crashing
to the ground. In that moment they
broke not only the wholeness and purity of the earth and of their own lives,
but the heart of the One who created them.
But…God loved mankind and the world
He’d made and wouldn’t give up on us.
He’d just have to be more determined now to persist against the huge
obstacle that sin had caused, eventually doing something about its power once
and for all. The cost to
redeem us would be immense, but stick to His goal He most certainly would for
He knew there was no hope for us without Him.
Every time we got ourselves in a
mess, no matter how big or stormy or deep, He reached for us, and we were never
so far away that His arms couldn’t find us. Every time someone else caused a tragedy that we wouldn’t
have chosen for the world, He had a way to hold us close even though often we
were in too much pain to feel how near He was or too hurt and angry to
care.
Along the way He began to write
chapter after chapter about His faithfulness. Not only had He shaped creation full of vessels, now He used
more of them to reveal His ongoing care and provision and power, even on the
devastated landscape.
He provided the vessel of an ark
for the one little faithful family who chose to obey in spite of ridicule and
scorn as they were watching for drops of rain while building the boat on land
as dry as dust.
He held a ram in the container of a
thicket as a courageous follower walked up a mountain, willing to sacrifice his
long-awaited son if God told him to do it.
He protected three men who had
refused the command to worship a 90-foot tall idol when a king decided to toss
them into the container of a fiery furnace, proving in the end that God’s hands
were stronger than any plan the enemy could concoct.
In the vessel of a wildcat den, He
closed the mouths of a bunch of hungry lions when Daniel was supposedly
destined to be their lunch and later he walked out to have his own.
He used the vessel of a giant fish
belly to allow Jonah the time to reconsider his stubbornness. And when he finally turned his heart
around, the fish also turned and navigated him right to the shores of
Ninevah. God’s ability has never
been matched.
Floods and
flames and fierce animals and fish are not more powerful than our God.
His very best idea began in the
vessel of a virgin’s womb into which He sent the tiny beginnings of His very
own Son, because a young woman was willing to have her own life upended and
rewritten for Him to arrive. And
the baby boy grew to be as willing a vessel as His momma. In short order He learned to hear the
sound of His Heavenly dad’s voice through earthly ears and it was at the one
now-famous wedding where He came as a guest who was sure it wasn’t His time
when He suddenly heard the whisper that spoke otherwise and He used six vessels
that were already there and waiting as evidence that the Father was all about
celebration and joy. The large
containers of water, standing there like guards of the old way became the first
evidence that this Beloved Son wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to put His
Father’s heart on display. Jesus
paid it full attention, to bring everything possible to earth as He danced out
His Father’s will.
Obedience spills Heaven to earth
every single time, whether the act is a dazzling miracle or one that is quiet
and mostly unseen and widens heaven just the same.
After three years of Jesus pouring
the Kingdom of heaven onto earth, the stone was rolled across a tomb’s
door. Mankind had killed God’s Son
and it looked like the enemy had now put Heaven’s greatest desire in a bottle,
cap on tight, sealed, done.
__________
God would let both Satan and us
sit, feeling all victorious and smug and powerful, for two more days before
rolling back that stone, as smoothly as He had the light and darkness eons
before, but this time to roll forth the true Light of the world, and pin darkness to the mat once and
for all. He’d lifted His Son out
of hell’s darkness, and by it, had just saved the world. Light had truly come.
We do not need to fear. We have no reason to worry. We certainly need not hold back,
wondering if this God has something good to do in the vessel that is our very
own life. Of course He does. It’s who He is.
He made you as an expression of
Himself, the only part of creation formed into His image, the only kind of
being able to choose to love, and to stand strongly in His truth.
The only thing in all of creation
and time that God cannot do is force a “yes” from you. But woo, and long for, and invite
you He certainly will. He keeps on
sending you little messages in sunrises and bird songs and turning seasons and
unexpected provision, hoping that you will realize more and more the utterly
amazing privilege it is to choose to walk with Him, like we did at the very
beginning, in the cool of the evening.
His favorite vessel is our
hearts. Tonight you’ve each come
with one. Where all the rest of
creation can only sit and wait for His return, we, ladies, are able to
choose. We can allow heaven to
come to earth. We can dare to open
ourselves up to His love and His plans and His transforming power.
It’s daring and it’s risky, for we
don’t know what He will ask of us, but we can be sure that He is good, that He
is wise, and that He won’t waste even the tiniest scrap of our willingness.
Your heart can truly hold His
character and release His will on earth.
Your heart, like the alabaster jar can spill out the aroma of
heaven---even when it breaks. Your
heart, like a small boy’s lunch can be offered. We won’t see it multiplied unless we first release it to His
hands.
Dare we be
women of that kind of courage and that measure of hope?
Dare we believe He is who He says
He is, and that He desires to do more of what is in that immense heart of
His? We get to receive as much as
we want, you know.
Other earthly containers get to
represent an aspect or two of God’s personality. We are the only ones who get to reveal the on-going movement
of God, if we listen and follow.
But vessels receive things
first. Then give them away.
Please be attentive this weekend to
the way the Spirit is calling you uniquely. There are stories yet to be written, lived, and told.
There has been much prayer going on
for you and for this weekend, and we believe that God has a fresh pouring out
for us and will continue to give as long as we keep giving it away. Our hope
was not to just provide you information this weekend, but to refresh your
spirit and to draw back the curtain a little to let you have a glimpse and be
encouraged by some of what God is doing within hearts in our own communities.
Our hope is to serve some of His nourishment
and refreshment through the presentations and among you as you share yourselves
with one another.
So be blessed ladies, be hungry,
and eat well from the feast He’s arranged.
Taste and see that the Lord is very
good.
Copyright
© 2015 by Anita Hickinbotham
