:: in which we are behind the glass

{via pinterest}

there's a lot of glass in this world. we spend most our lives behind glass, looking through panes to see out. we live and sleep and eat and breathe and even travel from ocean to ocean behind glass.

it's a lot of inside-out living, transparency our friend but the glass is covered in fingerprints with noses pressed up close to see everything that we just can't touch.

lend me your eyes, i can change what you see

but your heart, you must keep totally free

:: mumford and sons

sometimes the glass is there as a leaning post, something to press against and keep us steady, keep us close to the world but just out of reach.

are we afraid of the world outside, the puddles that might be deeper than we first imagine, the sharp stones that might cut our feet and make us bleed? 

there's an unsure-ity, an aspect of hesitation that comes hand in hand with that sunlight, oh that sunlight that kisses the glass and sends a thousand rainbows our way...always just out of reach.

and thumbprints, one of a kind, smoosh across the glass as we press our palms there like little children and wait...

...we wait for the day that the blinders come off, that we grow up enough to pass milk up for the meat and stand strong on the Rock that is greater, stronger.

and the curtain is torn and the glass shatters like ice from a shed roof in a sparkling crash that sings

freedom. 

{via pinterest}

and on and on and on and on it goes

till it overwhelms and satisfies my soul.

:: just one thing remains ::

it's childlike faith that never falters and never changes. 

it's innocent hearts in adult bodies.

it's wise serpents and gentle doves curled together like the promise in Isaiah, two things so foreign and so deadly one to another made sanctified and holy because a little child shall lead them. 

and so we press bare feet to hardwood floors and press our noses to glass as we wait until we're grown, just a little stronger with roots a little deeper. 

then comes the shatter 

// and then comes the light. 

True

Have you ever thought about how God sees you?

...ever sat down beneath a spreading tree and gazed up at the pale blue sky, spread lightly with wispy clouds, just to think about someone for whom you care deeply?

...danced under a midnight sky, sprinkled with the delicately burning stars?

...opened a leather-bound book that has sat on the shelf for months, and felt as if you were becoming reacquainted with a long-missed friend?
That is a picture of God's delight in you.
Have you ever had a broken heart?

...wept until you were out of tears over the struggles of a beloved brother, fighting his way through old memories, stamped indelibly in his mind...if only you could free him...if only...?

...carried the secret pains of a friend on your own heart, wishing you could fight her battles for her...wishing that you could make her understand how beautiful she is...?
This is a picture of God's pain at your sorrow.

Have you ever experienced true love?
...had someone love you so much that they would give up their comfort, their freedom, their dreams, their very lives to keep you safe?

...had someone wrap their arms around you and just let you cry your heart out into their shoulder, knowing that their heart is breaking because you are suffering?
This is a picture of God's love for you.

This is a picture of my God.
True delight.
True sorrow.
True love.
"And God demonstrates His love for us in this...while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8
"Great love has none than this: that a man lays down his life for his friends." -John 15:13