Cookie cutters, birthdays, fellowship

I recently had that annual September birthday that just keeps coming around. I’m told by my friends that is a good thing, and I know it is. I’m thankful God has allowed me to live this long because that means He isn’t finished with me yet.

(Hopefully I’m not still here because He’s shaking His head saying, ‘When will she get it right?’)

Anyway, I am blessed. Friends and family wished me Happy Birthday and made me feel so loved. Did you know that is a need every human has built into their DNA? We all need love.

Even back in the Garden of Eden days, God created Mr. Adam and Mrs. Eve to need that fellowship with God and others. (Of course their ‘others’ was not very prolific at that time.)

We each have a big hole in our spiritual heart (not one that a heart doctor can sew up). That hole in our heart causes us to search for something to fill it.

Sometimes we try to fill it with money, prestige, work success, popularity, social media importance — but it can’t be filled with those things or others I forgot!

God created humans to need and desire fellowship with Him and each other.

We had a precious lady able to come back into the live church service instead of watching online. And she made the statement, “It just isn’t the same when you watch the service on the computer.”

She had missed those hugs, physical touch, love and personal conversations that just don’t happen through the computer screen. That’s because God created us to need these things, that can only be satisfied by Him, or other human beings.

Charles Stanley said in his Bible Study, “Life Principles to Live By,” that our intimacy with God is HIS highest priority. God — the creator of the Universe is busy keeping all the planets, the sun and the moon going in the right direction — is concerned with us!

Stanley says God created us with fellowship in mind. We have a need to know we are loved. Sometimes we search for love from others, when we should begin with love from God.

In Gen. 1:26 God describes how He made man and woman in His image so we can be close to Him. In Isaiah 55: 6-7 it reads, “Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on Him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”

Wow, let that sink in. He will not only pardon our sin nature — He will do it with abundance.

I love that our sons give me a hard time of teasing — and I try to give it right back. For example, The Orlando Braymers have nicknamed me Grama Lama Ding Dong, and they love to find llama things for me. My birthday package had a llama hot pad, oven mitt, clothes pins and even a cookie cutter in the shape of a llama. But when I first pulled it out of the envelope, I thought it was an alligator. So I thanked them for all the items including the alligator cookie cutter. Well, our son was very upset that it must have been so bent up in travel, that it didn’t look like a llama. I had so much fun with that for several days. I even tried to find an alligator cookie cutter to take a picture of and send it to him.

But I finally had to admit that the llama arrived safe and sound — I just haven’t had time to bake any cookies!

But that’s what relationships are all about. We’ve cried with our grown kids when hearts are broken. We’ve prayed with them over important decisions. While laying in bed this morning, not ready to get up, I prayed for the grandchildren’s future dating years and spouses. Those are important relationship moments. Because I love them so much.

But once we experience that intimacy with God, and realize how much He loves us, we can also love the “unlovely.” That’s why we can sing the song, “Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children of the World.”

But it starts with loving ourselves, like God loves us. I’m not perfect, and neither is anyone I know on this earth. The love of Christ comes through with grace. Accept the fact you aren’t perfect and that you need a perfect God to love you unconditionally. Jesus Christ is waiting with open arms to show you how much He loves you.

Visit TrueLife.org or find a Christian who can show you the scriptures that prove how much you are loved and God's highest priority is a relationship with You!