(I wrote this the Saturday after the children and grandchildren left on Friday)
Today I feel like a young wife returning home after a long trip, a long absence and abstinence from her husband and lover. My five grandchildren (7, 6, 5, 3. 1), my son and daughter-in-law have been here this week. And as much delight and joy as I have in all of them—individually and as a group, my true rest and joy, and even my excitement and delight has been delayed, neglected because I have not taken as much time to be with my Lord.
I have an urgency to be with him. There is a satisfaction that I receive from the presence of God that none other can fill. In the whole world, he is the one who cares most about me. He sustains, holds, and keeps me. I am protected and enjoyed, delighted in and cherished. We laugh together, cry together, and I expose all I am to him. I know this theologically and emotionally. Today my body feels it to the point of tears—the moment when longing to be cherished and to cherish is fulfilled.
I love the word cherished. It is better than the concept of “love” which has been diluted and damaged through over- and misuse. Cherished, for me, means intimately held, never abandoned, valued, thought-highly-of delighted in and provided for. It means safe. It means intimate conversation. Tender and gentle care. It also means a calling upward. When someone cherishes you, they seek your best. Your gifts and desires are considered and called forth into fulfillment. This blesses you and the world around you, as you become what you were intended to be.
A contented homemaker or teacher, a cherished CEO or health-care worker, a laborer in the fields, the owner of the fields, the manager of the fields can all offer more joy and hope to the world when they know they are deeply cherished.
If you breathe, you are cherished.
But believing this significant truth takes time, for we are often filled with a sense of being ugly and deformed, undeserving and too weak to be so cherished. These lies arise from darkness, and they keep us from the eternal life with God we are meant to live NOW—not just later.
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3
An Invitation to Wonder 