Sunday, February 14, 2010

Daytona Took My Fingernails

Today is a day of love...February 14...Valentine's Day...a day for expressing love to those that are near and dear to our hearts...today is also the start to the 2010 racing season...the Daytona 500...Let's go racin' boys!!! Trust me, in a home where NASCAR and all that goes with it pays the bills, Valentine's takes a back seat...no, let me rephrase that...you know the third seat in the back of a Suburban? yeah, Valentine's sits on THAT seat in comparison to the Daytona 500. Today's race was no exception. During one of the two red flags, the hubby got up to wash the dishes - and he MAY have taken one bathroom break...but I'm not for sure. I guess when you put in 60 hours a week into something you live and breathe, you just gotta see the fruits of your labor!

This particular race took a lot longer than most, mainly because mother nature had wreaked havoc on the track in the last few days and the effects were only seen today. Six hours...six loooooonnnnng hours of racing and red flags...all to get us to the final few laps. Our cars were top contenders...but in the end, we fell a little short but still had 3 top eleven finishes...pretty darn good! One of our engines actually won the race and in the Ward home, that's bragging rights. Although my poor fingernails got the worst of end of the deal (I think may need to invest in some tips or Lee Press Ons for a couple of weeks!), I was a happy girl...mainly because my love was a happy boy. I am proud of him and his accomplishments. This being Valentine's Day I can just be frank and tell you...he makes my heart flutter...14 years later, he still just does it for me. I thank God for him every day...I'm a blessed girl.

I think of the way that I love my husband and it makes me think of the way God loves me. You know, a husband and a wife share a different kind of love, but it's also much the same. We, as the Church, are the bride of Christ. And God loves each member of that Church body in such an all consuming, heart enveloping, suffocatingly gooey ooey way, that it makes me giddy. It makes my heart flutter. I am so in love with my Lord...unabashadly, wholly, souled out in love with my Lord...yet He loves me more. I mean, I love my husband and all, but I remember the first time I saw my daughter, when my doctor handed her slippery little pink body and I remember the type of scary love (doesn't that sound like an oxymoron? but it was, it was scary just how completely I loved this creature that I had barely even held, much less ever seen!!) that I had for her. That is the love our Savior has for us. He created you and I...and loved us so much that He came to this earth in our own form, so that we could relate to Him and accept Him even more just so He could be the propitiation for our nastiness...a nastiness He could never emulate, because He is so completely perfect. Amazing that more and more people reject Him every day. His love humbles me...His love is unearned ~ sounds a lot like grace doesn't it?? ~ His love is perfect. It's incomprehensible...it's wonderful.

So, on this day of nail biting racing...and this day of love (honestly, the man didn't even get me a card!)...I have to ask...have you accepted His love fully and wholly? You can be a follower of Christ...walking the fence..doing just enough to keep afloat ~ and that "keeping afloat" varies for different people ~ and never fully experience His love. I challenge you...talk to Him daily...and stop and listen for Him to speak to your heart...get into those 66 love letters He has given to you to help you through this life...fellowship with other believers...they can give you insight to where God has brought them from...forgive others so that you can fellowship and worship the way god wants you to...fully experience His love ~ today! And I'll keep you posted on those Lee Press On Nails...

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