
"Bless your socks off" - to receive blessings from God in such a quantity and with such force as to cause the coverings to fly off one's feet.
OK, this definition did not come from Websters; I made it up. But it's the best way I can describe my experience this weekend - God blessed my socks off!
"Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." Exodus 3:5
Moses, get ready. God's going to bless your socks off!
God blessed my socks off! Perhaps part of the blessing was that I didn't see it coming. We organized a retreat for our small group leaders, and one of the women knew someone with a cottage on a lake who would allow us to use it for the weekend. Just having a place where we could hold this retreat was a blessing. The place God provided for us was AMAZING!
The cottage was not a cottage at all (perhaps, in my limited mental capacity, that term was all I could comprehend). It definitely wasn't something you would ever find in The Parade of Homes. Nope. The Lodge, as it is called, would be better suited on "The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." Except you would never see it there because the owners just aren't that kind of people. I don't even know who they are.
I'm sure our eyes grew bigger as we approached the Lodge. Because the caretaker met us there, we showed as much decorum as we could muster up. But once he finished our tour and left, we could no longer contain ourselves and started jumping up and down and screaming. Literally. Not something I normally do, but then nothing about this experience was normal.
I knew the Lodge had twelve bedrooms, but my mind couldn't fathom the SIZE of this place, and my words cannot describe it. I wonder if John felt this way as he was writing down his vision of Heaven in the book of Revelation?
I was one up on John - I had a camera. I will admit, I took a picture of every room. I thought the pictures would express what my words couldn't. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? If that is true, I needed it to be worth a million. As soon as I got home I loaded the pictures on the computer to show my husband and realized how far they fell short of the reality of this place. So even if John had illustrated the book of Revelation, we still would have only a sliver of the reality of what Heaven is.
I even took a picture of the refrigerator-sized freezer, open and full of a half-gallon of every possible flavor of Hudsonville icecream - all there for us to enjoy. (I called the woman who was going to pick up a half-gallon of vanilla on the way over and told her, "never mind".)
I wonder how often I do that - settle for vanilla when God wants to give me a smorgasbord of the best? Scripture says in Ephesians 3:20 that God "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine." After this weekend, I have a better understanding of what that means. It wasn't just the house (or the icecream), it was that God was there. He was lavishing His love on us. He was speaking to us. We were listening and we were blessed.
OK, this definition did not come from Websters; I made it up. But it's the best way I can describe my experience this weekend - God blessed my socks off!
"Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." Exodus 3:5
Moses, get ready. God's going to bless your socks off!
God blessed my socks off! Perhaps part of the blessing was that I didn't see it coming. We organized a retreat for our small group leaders, and one of the women knew someone with a cottage on a lake who would allow us to use it for the weekend. Just having a place where we could hold this retreat was a blessing. The place God provided for us was AMAZING!
The cottage was not a cottage at all (perhaps, in my limited mental capacity, that term was all I could comprehend). It definitely wasn't something you would ever find in The Parade of Homes. Nope. The Lodge, as it is called, would be better suited on "The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." Except you would never see it there because the owners just aren't that kind of people. I don't even know who they are.
I'm sure our eyes grew bigger as we approached the Lodge. Because the caretaker met us there, we showed as much decorum as we could muster up. But once he finished our tour and left, we could no longer contain ourselves and started jumping up and down and screaming. Literally. Not something I normally do, but then nothing about this experience was normal.
I knew the Lodge had twelve bedrooms, but my mind couldn't fathom the SIZE of this place, and my words cannot describe it. I wonder if John felt this way as he was writing down his vision of Heaven in the book of Revelation?
I was one up on John - I had a camera. I will admit, I took a picture of every room. I thought the pictures would express what my words couldn't. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? If that is true, I needed it to be worth a million. As soon as I got home I loaded the pictures on the computer to show my husband and realized how far they fell short of the reality of this place. So even if John had illustrated the book of Revelation, we still would have only a sliver of the reality of what Heaven is.
I even took a picture of the refrigerator-sized freezer, open and full of a half-gallon of every possible flavor of Hudsonville icecream - all there for us to enjoy. (I called the woman who was going to pick up a half-gallon of vanilla on the way over and told her, "never mind".)
I wonder how often I do that - settle for vanilla when God wants to give me a smorgasbord of the best? Scripture says in Ephesians 3:20 that God "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine." After this weekend, I have a better understanding of what that means. It wasn't just the house (or the icecream), it was that God was there. He was lavishing His love on us. He was speaking to us. We were listening and we were blessed.
"In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you." John 14:2 KJV
I could have never imagined a person like me staying in a place like this. In a way that is only possible in God's kingdom, this experience reminded me of my time in Africa. The houses were different - a mansion vs. dirt floors and mud walls, but the hearts were the same. In both places I was offered the use of everything they had.
It IS a small world after all.
Daddy, words cannot express how much this weekend meant to me. I feel so loved and cherished. The best part was that I got to be with you. I can't wait for Heaven! Thanks for knowing my heart and allowing me to skip the decorum and just jump up and down and scream when I get there. Love, Lisa