Back in the day when the wall paper was outlandish, when the carpet looked liked a horrible spaghetti-stained accident, and when Cinnamon Toast Crunch was the "bomb", there was a pretty special big-sister-little-brother friendship.
The cliche statement "we did everything together" is a very accurate description of what our childhood was like. We collected McDonald's Happy Meal toys and built a wood block cruise ship for all of them. The huge green tub of Legos was also a vital part of hang out time. And even though he was a boy, it wasn't beneath his dignity to dress barbie dolls and contribute to hilarious dialogue between Ken and Barbie:
"Look, Honey. My head popped off."
There was one time that I remember when we were playing the well-known pretending game called "House." We were in the backyard pulling our radio flyer wagon with our plastic baby dolls. I was the wife and he was my husband. We would use cheesy terms of endearment, like "darling" and "honey" when we talked to each other. After a little while, I realized that it was really weird to pretend like I was married to my little brother.
I stopped pulling the wagon, turned to look at him and said,
"Wait. I don't want you to be my husband anymore. This is too weird."
"Well, what can I be?"
"..................Why don't you just be my cat?"
Without hesitation or feeling absolutely degraded, he said, "Okay!"
He plopped to the ground on all fours and started mewing incessantly.
And from then on, every time we played "House" he was the cat. He wasn't my son, or my cousin, or the mail man, or any sort of human. He was the cat and he was happy about it.
Not sure if he even remembers that, but I do. Partly because it's funny that I made him be a cat. But thinking about it even more makes me realize what he was willing to do for me just so we could play together. It's very telling of the type of relationship we had.
I can't help but make a connection with this idea of being in a relationship with God. Sometimes, as Jesus-followers, we have those moments when we make the decision to be fine with doing whatever He wants just so we can be with Him.
There are some people who follow all the rules just for the sake of keeping them. And then there are others who follow the rules because they are just so absolutely in love with Love Himself.
They talk to Jesus like they would talk to a real person and say, "You want me to stay here? You want me to move away? You want me to give this up? You want me to start doing more of this? You want me to get married? You want me to be single? You want me to drop everything now and talk to you for a minute? Yes! Whatever you want!"
It all flows out so easily because there is so much love. But how does that love get inside? What makes a soft heart? It has to come from somebody else first. I have the tendency to get caught up with how much love I give to Jesus, but really, Jesus mostly just wants to give love to me.
"We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19
Being loved by the King of the Universe is something I have a hard time understanding. I don't know how valuable and worthwhile I really am. Chances are you don't know either. I think that's where people get messed up with this whole "obedience" idea. People want to do their own thing because they don't know how much they're loved. Sometimes we don't understand that God's plan for our life is infinitely better than the life we could dream up for ourselves.
Jesus' love for us is so intense that one time he said, "If you stay with me and my words stay with you, you can ask whatever you want and I'll do it for you." (my paraphrase of John 15:7)
If anyone is willing to believe that God is good and that his desire for their life is the best, than the words "Whatever you want, Lord" aren't so hard to say. PLUS, when we can say to him "whatever you want", He will gladly say to us "whatever you want!"
Just like my little brother wanted to be with me, Jesus wants to be with you. He wants to love you and He wants you to love him back.
The cliche statement "we did everything together" is a very accurate description of what our childhood was like. We collected McDonald's Happy Meal toys and built a wood block cruise ship for all of them. The huge green tub of Legos was also a vital part of hang out time. And even though he was a boy, it wasn't beneath his dignity to dress barbie dolls and contribute to hilarious dialogue between Ken and Barbie:
"Look, Honey. My head popped off."
There was one time that I remember when we were playing the well-known pretending game called "House." We were in the backyard pulling our radio flyer wagon with our plastic baby dolls. I was the wife and he was my husband. We would use cheesy terms of endearment, like "darling" and "honey" when we talked to each other. After a little while, I realized that it was really weird to pretend like I was married to my little brother.
I stopped pulling the wagon, turned to look at him and said,
"Wait. I don't want you to be my husband anymore. This is too weird."
"Well, what can I be?"
"..................Why don't you just be my cat?"
Without hesitation or feeling absolutely degraded, he said, "Okay!"
He plopped to the ground on all fours and started mewing incessantly.
And from then on, every time we played "House" he was the cat. He wasn't my son, or my cousin, or the mail man, or any sort of human. He was the cat and he was happy about it.
Not sure if he even remembers that, but I do. Partly because it's funny that I made him be a cat. But thinking about it even more makes me realize what he was willing to do for me just so we could play together. It's very telling of the type of relationship we had.
I can't help but make a connection with this idea of being in a relationship with God. Sometimes, as Jesus-followers, we have those moments when we make the decision to be fine with doing whatever He wants just so we can be with Him.
There are some people who follow all the rules just for the sake of keeping them. And then there are others who follow the rules because they are just so absolutely in love with Love Himself.
They talk to Jesus like they would talk to a real person and say, "You want me to stay here? You want me to move away? You want me to give this up? You want me to start doing more of this? You want me to get married? You want me to be single? You want me to drop everything now and talk to you for a minute? Yes! Whatever you want!"
It all flows out so easily because there is so much love. But how does that love get inside? What makes a soft heart? It has to come from somebody else first. I have the tendency to get caught up with how much love I give to Jesus, but really, Jesus mostly just wants to give love to me.
"We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19
Being loved by the King of the Universe is something I have a hard time understanding. I don't know how valuable and worthwhile I really am. Chances are you don't know either. I think that's where people get messed up with this whole "obedience" idea. People want to do their own thing because they don't know how much they're loved. Sometimes we don't understand that God's plan for our life is infinitely better than the life we could dream up for ourselves.
Jesus' love for us is so intense that one time he said, "If you stay with me and my words stay with you, you can ask whatever you want and I'll do it for you." (my paraphrase of John 15:7)
If anyone is willing to believe that God is good and that his desire for their life is the best, than the words "Whatever you want, Lord" aren't so hard to say. PLUS, when we can say to him "whatever you want", He will gladly say to us "whatever you want!"
Just like my little brother wanted to be with me, Jesus wants to be with you. He wants to love you and He wants you to love him back.
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