Captured by Love

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Traveling for ten hours on the interstate yesterday with my husband, on our way to help with the Rocky Mountain Getaway conference for high school students, my heart was captured by words that I read from Colossians:

"For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness 

and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, 

who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins."

(Colossians 1:13-14)

"As a result, He has brought you into His own presence, 

and you are holy and blameless 

as you stand before Him without a single fault."

(Colossians 1:22b)

"And this is the secret: Christ lives in you." 

(Colossians 1:27b)

The most awesome thing, that we can live and walk with this great God who rescued us and purchased our freedom, and so amazing that we can hardly even comprehend it ... this God is very close, not far away, but in us.

And more words grabbed my heart as I continued on in my reading of Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman, more words about this God who lives in us ... words about how He loves us, how He loves even me.

Mary Beth, so excited, yet apprehensive as they traveled to China to adopt their first infant girl from that country, not knowing how she would respond when seeing their new little daughter for the first time, found herself overwhelmed with love.  

She wrote, "I couldn't get to her fast enough. I opened my arms, flew toward the woman, and took the baby. Tears poured down my face. I couldn't believe that this was my child. I stared down at her, crying over and over, 'This is my baby!'"

She went on to write, "In that moment, time stopped. It was like God was speaking to me directly ... 'Do you not understand now that this is the very way I see you? You are this orphan! I adopted you and you are Mine! I bought you for a price! Do you see how you love this baby? That's just a faint reflection of how much I love you! You didn't have a name, and I gave you a name. You did nothing to deserve My love, and I love you anyway. You had no hope, no future, and now you are the daughter of the King!"

I may never fully comprehend (until heaven) what it means to be rescued by this great God, what it fully means to be loved so completely by Him ... but as we drove the interstate yesterday for hours and hours, I came a bit closer to realizing the impact of the words that I read. And I will carry this close, as I live and walk through this day. 

And I will pray that all those I love, and all those 350 students who will be arriving here at this beautiful place tomorrow will be captured in a fresh way by this God who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins, and who loves us more than we can even imagine.

Linked to Brag on God Friday