Long, loving looks

Take a long, living look at me, your high God, above politics, above everything.
Psalm 46 (The Message)

I love the psalms, and this is one of my new favorites. (I think I say that almost every post!)  The Message version of this adds such drama and clarity.  Other versions say, "Be still and know that I am God," which I also love.... But The Message seems to gives more insight--  how can I be still?  Take a long, loving look.

So my question today is....  When was the last time I took a long, loving look at God?

I have to admit, to me, the idea of this seems a bit ridiculous.  It feels like it's too much.  Too much to hope for.  Too much to have.  But this past year has been a year of God teaching me about his extravagant love.  I have learned and experienced what these long, loving looks hold.  He speaks -- be still, sit with me.  Listen.  I love you so much.  Look at me.

At first I would shy away.  I am too full of sin, too broken.  How can he really love me?

But as time went on, and as I listened to the words I was reading and all the people who were talking and all of the prayers I was experiencing, I started to be able to steal glances.  Like a child who just got in trouble, but could hear the forgiveness in his mother's voice, my eyes slowly shifted from the ground and locked in on the beauty of His presence.  

Think of someone in your life who has given you a long, loving look.  A mother, a friend, your spouse.  Think of their eyes.  Can you see the forgiveness they hold when you did something  wrong?  Can you picture the laughter and joy they offer when you are experiencing joy?  Can you see the sadness they express when you come before them with tears?  

Those are the long loving looks that  God is asking for... from us.  

My favorite expression of this type of loving look comes from an unlikely place.  Hosea.  Hosea was a prophet with a hard task.  God wanted him to show how much he loved Israel by taking back his wandering wife and loving her again.  

She was a mother and a wife, but she ran away, abandoning Hosea with the kids and the work. In this context,  Hosea had to track her down (and he found her in a brothel), and then bring her home.  Who does that?  Well Hosea did... because God told him to.  

And then Hosea was left with a monumental task.  Hosea had to learn again how to give her long, loving looks.  How to connect with her, so that Israel would know what true love is. I can only imagine how hard that was.  But it teaches us so much. 

First, God loves us madly.  He knows we sin.  He knows we live in sin.  But he cares about us so much that he will race to even the brothels to find us. Second, Hosea was called to bring his wife back home with him.  They had to physically be together.  We can't have a relationship with God if we don't take time to sit with him.  Lots of time.  Third , long loving looks don't come easy.  We have to work for them.  We have to take time and build the relationship. I am sure it wasn't easy for Hosea, and it isn't easy for me.  But when I dare to turn my eyes to God, even a little, he rewards me so extravagantly.

So today I hope you get to experience the best loving looks there are.  The loving looks of God. 

Psalm 46 (The Message)
God is a safe place to hide,
    ready to help when we need him.
We stand fearless at the cliff-edge of doom,
    courageous in seastorm and earthquake,
Before the rush and roar of oceans,
    the tremors that shift mountains.
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
    God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
River fountains splash joy, cooling God’s city,
    this sacred haunt of the Most High.
God lives here, the streets are safe,
    God at your service from crack of dawn.
Godless nations rant and rave, kings and kingdoms threaten,
    but Earth does anything he says.

Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
    God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.
Attention, all! See the marvels of God!
    He plants flowers and trees all over the earth,
Bans war from pole to pole,
    breaks all the weapons across his knee.
“Step out of the traffic! Take a long,
    loving look at me, your High God,
    above politics, above everything.”
Jacob-wrestling God fights for us,
    God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.