Reaching...

Nothing melted my heart as quickly as the sight of one of my babies reaching for me. Those tiny upheld hands, those trusting little eyes looking up at me. I couldn't help but pick them up. When people are hurting and they reach for me, I love to hold them. Few things hurt more than when I reach for someone and they won't allow me to touch them. I remember as a child, reaching out to tenderly touch my mother's face and her pushing my hands away. God is NOT that way!
One of my favorite singers, Carolyn Arends once sang:

"We are reaching for the future, we are reaching for the past
and no matter what we have we reach for more,
We are desperate to discover what is just beyond our grasp
and maybe that's what Heaven is for..."

So true! I believe there's an ache in every human heart- an emptiness that can only be filled by spiritual intimacy with the One who created us. We try to fill that restless, empty space with lots of different things. Sex, parties, movies, church duties, good causes, material goods, etc. But the joy of these things always passes. I've spent most of my life reaching.... for acceptance, for people to love, money, fitness, knowledge, for a better way to make my dreams come true. Sometimes I wish I could just stop reaching, be satisfied with what I have and who I am and relax for a while. (I'm learning this discipline, but I'm slow...)
God is always reaching out to us and never tires of doing so. That concept blows my mind! Why would an infinite, sinless, loving, all-knowing, all-seeing God reach for ME? Yet, every morning I hear Him whisper to my heart. I cannot abandon this great love. Nothing else I've ever experienced has been as satisfying. Maybe my role as a Christian is not to spend my life desperately reaching for the love of a distant God, but to allow myself to be reached by His love. God desires to know me and to be known by me. I cannot reach others with truth- until the truth has reached me.