Even now I smile at the excitement and utter honor I felt at being in his presence. When he offered his hand to me I shook it thinking what a great moment this was in my life. His fingers were soft and gentle. They were also pudgier than I expected! I was thrilled to meet him and warmed by his smile. I was just one in millions of fans he has met through the years. I know he would never recognize me and I am a total stranger to him.
Yesterday’s reading in the devotional, “God Calling” was about taking the time to just “be” with Jesus. To just have the desire to be in His presence. It got me to thinking about how blessed I felt to be in Mr. Klugh’s presence and how that pales in comparison to being in the presence of the Lord. When I consider that Jesus has a heart that appreciates a person who just wants to be in His presence, asking nothing, expecting nothing but just sitting with Him as one sits with a close friend, it’s pretty amazing. Add to that the fact that no matter who you are, He knows everything about you and loves you so much that he gave his life for you!
Desiring our simple presence would be the human side of our Lord I suppose and I doubt if many people think about that very often. When I’m alone playing my music for Him, I often just picture myself sitting on the floor at His feet singing to Him like I would sing for my closest friend. It gives me a warm and contented feeling. I feel Him smiling and just enjoying this bonding time together. And it’s good. It’s real good.
“The longing for the human heart to be loved for itself…” What a beautiful thought that my Lord longs for me to just want to “be” with Him. Who am I that He should crave such a thing as my lowly presence? And yet, I’m sure that every person has that same desire to just be loved for no other reason than just because. I know I do.
When I was little sometimes our family would lie on the floor and listen to music and just be still. Those were such special moments to me. I learned much, much later, as in after my own children were grown, that it was practice for blackouts during bomb raids and my parents were silently preparing us for the worst. It was during the era of “duck and cover” and air raid practices at school. However, oblivious to the true reason behind the exercise, I took it as a special bonding time. I grew up believing that it was one of the ways my parents expressed their love for us. Consequently I did the same with my kids and even promoted it to others as a way of just being still and enjoying one another’s presence. It was that important in my life.
Not until fairly recently did I consider this as an important part of my relationship with Christ. I was working on developing the habit of being still before the Lord, but even then there was the expectation that “something” should happen. The intentional practice of “soaking” in the Lord’s presence with no expectations and just loving Him and being loved wasn’t on my mind. Now I look forward to those moments. Being still and just loving Jesus is such a blessing. It still takes effort. In fact, now that I’m intentional about it, it seems that there are a multitude of things that come up and get in the way. Somehow, that seems to be the way of it all though. You know you’re doing something right when everything starts going wrong!
Have you spent quality time with Jesus lately?