Running to your arms!

As I was singing during worship this past weekend, some lyrics to a song really resonated with me.  The words are simply "Oh, I'm running to your arms, I'm running to your arms, the riches of your grace will always be enough.  Nothing compares with your embrace.  Light of the world forever reign."

First, I just love this song.  The words paint a beautiful picture.  I liken it to when Jason comes home from a long deployment, or truthfully, sometimes even after being gone just a few weeks at sea, but EVERYTHING in me lights up when I see his face!  I'm just so thankful to have him home and our children are so thankful to have him home.  You may know the feeling I am talking about, you see them and your whole body lets out this joyful sigh, your pulse gets a little faster, your heart feels full to bursting and you don't know if you want to laugh or cry or both.  It's an intense rush of emotion.  And you know in a minute you are going to have his arms wrapped around you and the feeling of being safe and protected and LOVED will slide back into place.

So when I sing this song, I often see the image of a little girl running to her dad as he returns home from war.  Long hair flying in the breeze, swishy skirts moving as she runs forward and then the ultimate moment when her daddy picks her up and they hug and twirl around in circles, laughing and crying and being joyful of being together.  This is be what God wants for us and He can be there always.  We can always run to Him, we don't have to wait. 

For any of you who have been to a homecoming, you also see the little girls and boys, who hang back, shy and uncomfortable from the one who loves them and knows them so well.  The disconnection, the fear, the hiding.  I have a tendency to be this girl.  Oh, how every part of me wants to run with joy and abandon to God, but I stick close to what I know, even though stepping forward would be better.  I feel shy and often, ashamed,  and think He will feel that way about me too.  But that just isn't the truth.  And we have to stop believing it.  

He delights in us.  We just have to be wildly courageous for one second and take that first step, then we will be running for all we're worth to the one who loves us and knows our worth.   Who will gather us in His embrace where, even if  it feels like the world is falling apart, we will be loved and whole.  Wholly loved, wholly adored, wholly worthy.  Wholly delightful. 

The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17