where's the mailbox?

yesterday i was blessed to be able to do children's church!! i think you go into it looking to teach the kiddos. yet they teach YOU. i didn't have a huge lesson planned for yesterday. i just wanted to talk about father's day with them. but to also remind them that GOD is our father! and he loves us the 'mostest' (in the words of a little child.) then we were going to make their daddies some pictures. and god.

that's where the question came in. as i was explaining how we could make something for god. "M" asked me this: where's the mailbox? hmmm. where is the mailbox?!?! it got me thinking. and i told him how god is everywhere and he doesn't 'need' a mailbox because he sees everything. that answer was suffice for him. good thing! because i didn't know what else to say about god NOT having a mailbox. but it also got us talking after church how we could make a mailbox for god for the children's church. so if they want to make something private/special for god, they have a place to put it.

but now it has me thinking. where is OUR mailbox. not the one on the road. but in our hearts? is it open to receive mail...ALL the time? or is it open to receive mail when it's the mail we WANT to get? do i read ALL the mail? or just the stuff i WANT to read? to i get the mail EVERY day? or only when i WANT to get it? see a trend?

god is not a 'when you want him' god. he's not a god of 'convenience'. yet i think that's how we sometimes put him. we set him aside when we don't want to read what he wants to tell us. we set him aside when we think we can do it ourselves. we just plain don't make time for him.

yet he stays?! seriously. for myself, i know that i don't treat him as a good guest all the time. he is a guest afterall. one I invited INTO MY LIFE. yet I the HOST treat him sort of crummy sometimes. YET he chooses to stay. he's always there. doesn't leave. he paitently waits until i decide to make time for him. i stand in awe at the faithfulness of him. because i know if i were somewhere and was getting ignored i'd totally want to leave. yet he doesn't. he's waiting ever so paitently for me to return to him.

i can only imagine his paitence for those who've totally walked away from him. he sits. and waits. and waits. and waits. lovingly waiting for his son or daughter to return to him. what a father. an awesome abba father.

the love of god is something i feel. i know. yet i do not understand it. nor can i describe the peace that comes from it. until you, yourself, know that same love of god you won't understand how i can't describe or understand it.

my mailbox is probably a bit overflowing from god. there are probably some moldy letters in there because i didn't want to read them. basically because i didn't want to read what they have to say. so i challenge myself to open my mailbox. everyday. not when it 'works' out to do it. but everyday. i check my email about a bajillion times a day. how often do i check my mail from god? not anywhere near a bajillion. yet what god has to say is so much more powerful than some junk email for some money sitting in a bank for me in kajdjioeqjoijdkjieidlkjtchwan. today. tomorrow. and every tomorrow. i am going to open that mail from god. so i can make room for more things from him. because he has things he wants to tell me. wants to show me. i just need to want those things.

god is truly my father. he's my ever loving father. when we were making the pictures for god i asked each of the children to tell me their favorite thing about him. it was fun to hear their answers. they loved that HE loves us, that he protects us, that he does stuff for us...out of the mouth of babes.

i look forward to doing children's church again. it isn't for awhile now. we have about eight super fab ladies who are willing to teach it. so it's about once every two months for us to have to 'miss' church. we get a tape after to listen to and there is a speaker downstairs. but like yesterday, i didn't miss god speaking to me at all. i may have missed what mike's message was to church, but i didn't miss god speaking to my heart. sending me an urgent letter to MY mailbox.

all i had to do was open it.