Cell Phone Reflections

I typed this up on my phone on Friday heading home from a friend's house. I read the book of Ezekiel this week! I don't think I ever read that whole book before... and I started into Daniel. The verse that moved me the most, that kind of culminated a bunch of thoughts from the last couple days was Daniel 5:23b, from Daniel's speech to the king who wants to know the meaning of the writing on the wall -

"You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored."

I am so moved by the depth of God's love, for me but also for much more than me, for his People, for the lost. His word drips with agony and passion; he wants to correct and draw in and enfold, but he will not force, and while the crucifixion is encapsulated in history, it is also ongoing in God's Spirit, yearning for people to be free and fulfilled, yearning to be recognized so that he can embrace, and outraged that so often people choose other things - success in a career, financial stability, beauty and popularity, "control" over our futures/choices. These things cannot see or hear; they do not respond to our devotion, our best efforts. God says, give ME those things - I not only see them, I desire them;I made you to fall deeply, satisfyingly, rapturously in love with me.