Every year my wife Linda and I look forward to what we call our annual DATE DAY at the Minnesota state fair. It is a time of rebonding and intimacy for us beyond the walls of work and home duties that re-energizes our marriage in almost a miraculous way. We have spent time there every year for seventeen years walking, holding hands, eating, looking, with no particular plan or agenda in mind. We go where the wind takes us there. It was the coldest and windiest year we have ever experienced. We brought warm clothing and so were prepared, but I refused to wear jeans and chose to wear shorts in spite of the cold. It gave us the opportunity to keep each other warm which is always fun!
This year we visited the DNR for a demonstration from the raptor center on the bald eagle, sponsored by the Bird Of Prey Conservancy who rescues birds of prey that are injured, (what an amazing bird up close!) visited the agriculture building to view both the bonsai exhibit and the orchid display, (I highly recommend this, beautiful!) voted for the best artist painting in the art exhibit, listened to some incredible blues music with a great sax player, and sampled different odd but tasty foods in the interim. And we always ride the sky tram where you sit in a little open cage and travel from north to south or vise versa about 80 feet in the air. We also talked to a man who was wearing a U.S. Open Tennis backpack, by me asking if he was a tennis player. Not realizing that the backpack gave him away, he said why yes I am, do I know you, have we played? He and I had a great discussion about tennis, a real enjoyable conversation for both of us!
For any of you who read my blog you know that the Butterfly House at the State Fair holds a special spiritual significance for my wife Linda and I. This year as we entered the butterfly house my spirit leaped with eager anticipation. The first thing Linda and I noticed was the great number of children there. Also that there did not seem to be the same concentration of butterflys there as last year. Some children were walking around in wide eyed wonderment with several butterflys resting on them, but some children were waiting with eager anticipation, you could almost hear them thinking, will a butterfly land on me? When a butterfly lands on anyone, that is the goal there, they are in their glory! WOW! A butterfly chose me to land on and now I am in my glory. If you could see the look on the childrens faces when that happens, how careful they are not to disturb the butterfly lest he fly away again, and the absolute look of glory on their faces. It makes you understand what Jesus was talking about when he said in Matthew 18:2-4 He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." So, you can stand and move around in the butterfly house or you can sit on a bench and wait for the butterfly to land on you. Linda and I sat on the bench, and soon we had but one butterfly between us. But we were in our glory! We had a butterfly with us, the whole goal of the visit was fullfilled in that we were in our glory. Or was it? A little boy came in and sat next to us, eagerly waiting, looking around, not with a smile on his face because he was not in his glory yet, he did not have an opportunity to be in his glory because there just were not enough butterflys to go around, after a minute or so his anticipation almost turned to dissapointment, will I have a chance to be in my glory with a butterfly? Of course, Linda and I looked at each other and we carefully handed the boy our butterfly, he looked in amazement and said, "For me?" we said yes, this is for you. He got a big smile on his face and said thank you! Now he was in his glory, we had given up our own glory so that he could be in his glory. I am here to tell you that there is no greater feeling of joy than giving up your own glory to experience anothers joy when they are in their glory.
The King James version of Jeremiah 9:24 says this; "But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD."
When you deny yourself for the sake of someone else out of loving kindness there really is no greater experience than that. Where does that loving kindness come from? It comes from Jesus himself because he lives in our heart and he loved us first, now we are able to love all others and place them above ourselves, to give away what we have been given. Loving kindness. He offers forgiveness to the sinner, he offers his unfathomable mercy and his ever flowing grace to anyone who will repent of their sins and call on him. By Jesus sacrifice on the cross where he gave his life for us, and then rose again so that we too might be "born again" become alive with him and called righteous not by our own effort, but because Jesus paid our debt in full for the sin in our lives.
Ephesians 2:1-9 says; Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in theunseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
Is your heart longing for something more? If so then I would say your loving Father in Heaven is calling you. Answer him, and you too can thank and praise him for rescuing you, and experience his loving kindness, mercy, and grace overflowing in your own life. You too can have great joy and love and peace beyond all understanding in your life. And once you have it, don't forget to give it away! You will find it keeps coming back to you in greater measure than before!
