SURPRISE!!!!

I used to try to control things, now I let Jesus delight in loving me.

"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb...My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth." Psalm 139: 13, 15

If you are a Christian you have probably heard this verse a ton of times, but I encourage you not to become calloused to how amazing this is. Think about it... He knit you together and intricately wove you. Think about this in an even more detailed way. I imagine God as being a joyful creator that takes great delight in what He creates. I imagine Him creating someone and getting giddy with excitement as He picks the eye color, or multiple colors, skin pigment, body shape, hair color and style, personality, and so much more. I imagine Him in an art room creating a masterpiece that He is so excited about making and then proudly shows his masterpiece off to everyone around. He then treasures that artwork and takes great delight in it even after He has completed it. Think about how excited He was to mold you and create you into the person you are. Not only did He delight in you when He made you , but He still delights in you to this day!

Now, think about this. He knows His masterpiece better than it knows itself. He knows us and loves us more than we can love ourselves. Now, look at it from a little different perspective. We are all soooo incredibly different and we feel loved in different ways. Not only does this show how creative God is, but it shows us how much He knows us. There are five basic love languages: words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, gifts, and acts of service. Obviously these are not all inclusive, so I'm going to add surprises as the 6th love language. 

I used to try to worry about my future and want to have everything planned, then the Lord showed me how He wanted to love on me: by surprises. Like I said, He made us so He knows us better than we know ourselves. At the time that did not sound fun but after teaching me to trust Him He started to work everything out with little surprises along the way. I grew to love life's surprises no matter what it was. Once I allowed God to love on me the way He wanted to, my relationship with Him grew immensely and He gave me the grace to delight in Him much more. 

Things I used to think were coincidences or mundane things became surprises the Lord used to love on me. It's amazing how whimsical His love becomes when He opens your eyes to it. Things

like flowers off by themselves, a bird hiding in a beautiful bush, my cat randomly walking in to love on me, a letter from a friend, a surprise gift, and many others became ways the Lord delighted in loving me. It's Christmas day which is making me think back to Christmases throughout my life. Even when I was little, I was never the one to try to find my presents or figure out what everything was. I delighted in the surprise element. Why? Because that's how God created me to see His love. The best is when its a surprise inception ha! One of my favorite surprise inceptions was when God placed a trip to Madagascar in my hands, provided everything I needed, provided awesome connections in ways I would never have thought, and so much more. One of my favorite surprise moments was when I got to hold a lemur in my lap (There weren't even supposed to be lemurs around) and it even fell asleep. To me, lemurs represent His faithfulness and His love. 

I've never been much of a fan of those predictable movies. I'm a lover of surprise endings. One of my favorite surprise endings is how Jesus came into the world. A predictable story would have gone like this: Jesus comes as a jacked 25 year old on a giant horse with flames coming from all sides with a chariot. He kills every human that has wronged Him (everyone) and takes over the world as it should be. But, we serve a humble God who surprised everyone. The creator of the universe came to earth as a helpless baby that couldn't do anything and needed his diapers changed. Then, He didn't even come as some warrior to take over the world. He grew up only to die a terrible and degrading death so that every person that has wronged Him could have the opportunity to believe in Him, give Him their lives, and live in Heaven forever. If that's not a surprise ending that shows love, I don't know what is.

So what's the point to this seemingly cheesy mess?

The God that hand-crafted you loves you more than you can imagine and knows exactly what makes you feel loved. For some of you that will be through words of affirmation. Open your eyes to the way people affirm you this week but most importantly pay attention to how the Lord affirms you throughout the Bible. Maybe keep a journal of what He says about you. For some it is service. Open your eyes to the whimsical ways the Lord serves you this week. If it's physical touch, pay attention to the ways people love on you and instead of automatically thinking it was that person, think about how the Lord is using them to love you. For others it's quality time. Allow your Creator to spend time with you this week! Don't rush through your quiet times. Allow Him to love you!! If it's gifts, open your eyes to the gifts He places all around you, such as a flower  that you see or something someone gives you or something that seems out of the ordinary. But remember, God often works in what seems like the ordinary, just waiting for us to open our eyes to His creative and whimsical love. Struggle seeing His whimsy? I challenge you to 10 days of whimsical love.

Some may call it cheesy, but I call it delighting in loving.