Designing Lorri

It has been a lovely spring day, in my opinion. Sure, it was gray and there was a chance of rain, but it was less than 80 degrees and I was happy. My daughter and I spend the moments before bedtime outside watching the clouds grow darker overhead. The last time it was the “calm before the storm”, my little girl and I set out a beach mat and watched clouds roll in. Today, we blew bubbles.

We were in the midst of amazement as the wind carried the bubbles low and into the wild-flowers, then high above the trees. It was like God was blowing them for us, all we had to do was hold out our soapy wands. My 2-year-old princess said, “thank you God for bubbles,” then she giggled.

She is proud to have mastered blowing her own bubbles. She laughed and jumped in place, but then gasped and yelled, “I’m gonna get THAT bubble.” She ran.

Even as she noticed that one bubble and chased it towards the fence-line, about a hundred more had already risen behind her and followed–but she didn’t care. Her eyes were focused on that one bubble. She called out to it and ran as far as she could until it floated on into a neighbors yard. She just stood there. Watching that one bubble float away, smiling and waiting.

Imagine: God is as excited about you as a toddler is about their favorite bubble. Imagine still: just as quickly as that bubble will pop and tiny particles will float away, so we too will someday vanish.

“Yet you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen in your life tomorrow. [What is secure in your life?] You are merely a vapor [like a puff of smoke or a wisp of steam from a cooking pot] that is visible for a little while and then vanishes [into thin air]”

James 4:14 AMP

As I stood watching my daughter run about and enjoy this moment, the wind continued to whip around the bubbles we had already blown. They seemed to last longer than usual, even though they all eventually vanished from sight or merely couldn’t survive the wind. I was reminded of the parable of the lost sheep. How silly and foolish it must seem to focus on such a small thing, but even though we are but vapors in the wind God still longs for us. Not just to bend us to His will or hold us accountable for our sins, but to have a real relationship of love and trust.

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Luke 15: 3-7 AMP

No matter how far outside God’s reach you think you have strayed, He is actually no further than a prayer–just a simple call that doesn’t even involve a phone. We have a tendency to make returning to the right path a lot more difficult than it has to be, when in fact Heaven rejoices when you do.