It is always fun to go to a party where people haven’t seen each other for a long time. For some it is years however for others it can be as short as a few week or months. It is the recognized change that creates the surprise! There is a good chance that whatever they are noticing was actually there all along, however the surprise registered on the face, through the smile, and in the voice in real and tangible.
There is a common reaction when meeting my God for the first time. When one discovers the true, complete, and whole God one seeks, the one full of acceptance, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, and love, there is a strong compulsion to end up in tears and prostration. It doesn’t have to be this way but it often is. As I recall my own reactions, emotions, and thoughts of the moment I find myself struggling to articulate just what was going on. I recognized John the revelator’s description of what happens when people see God in all his glory; “People from all nations and all times will tear their clothes in lament. Oh, Yes.” (Revelation 1.7)
Let me give you a sense of what it was like.
I was overwhelmed, consumed as it were, by hard fact that God, the Divine, intensely, completely, and fully loved me, just me, as I was and am.
The realization that God was, actually had, done everything necessary to restore me into a full and complete relationship, enough that I stood as God’s son before Divinity itself, was mind blowing.
My understanding of the gap the separated us, just how big, huge, and enormous it was, yet God had already bridged the space and I was standing at God’s feet, in God’s arms, in God’s presence ripped through any emotional boundaries I could put up or maintain.
In that moment I metaphorically tore my clothes in lament. I cried. I laughed. I danced. I shouted and screamed. I cried some more.
This is who I had looked for and longed to meet.
