I attended a week of pizza school. I can spread pizza sauce like nobody’s business. I honestly think my children believe this course is one of my life’s most significant achievements, and who knows, it does come in handy. To these children of mine, I wonder if they full-on believe it’s my most exceptional quality because the pizza making is tangible.
When I think of how my kids view my pizza-making skills, it makes me wonder what part of our relationship with God we assume is the “main thing,” when it’s just the most tangible.
When we think of our relationship with God, the first thing that may come to mind for many of us is Heaven. I want a relationship with God because I would rather go there than the alternative, so we try to repeat over and over in our heads, “When God asks me why He should let me into His Heaven…respond Jesus…Jesus. Don’t forget and say something like ‘Because I have been nice’ and end up in the bad place.” (These are honest conversations I used to have with myself!)
I wonder if we cling to that picture because it is tangible, and seek just enough of Jesus to make us right with God and think that’s the end of the story.
Hold on to the tangible: Jesus in the manger, Jesus on the cross, Heaven…but I believe there is more we can know of God if we tell Him we want to know more. If we ask Him to show us more of Himself and ask Him to teach us more of what this life is all about.
I can honestly say that God is so much more to me than I could have ever expected, but just like any relationship, it was built little by little over time.
A relationship with God can be compelling, but it took me ten years of pursuit to get there. It may not take you as long. Maybe it’s because I didn’t ask, or perhaps it was about the journey, but there is so much more to a relationship with God than duty, more than what He can do for you and you must do for Him.
I want to know more of God than what is going to come in handy. I don’t want to make assumptions that what I knew of God in my child’s-eye is all there is. I want to know not just about Him, but I want to know Him.
Ask my friends. Let’s ask to know Him more fully. I believe that is a prayer our God would want to answer. Let’s seek to know more of Him today than what we did yesterday and more tomorrow and more next year.
Let’s lean in and know more of God than what we have heard about Him. Seek to know all of Him. Someday my kids may discover that I have even greater skills than pizza making. Maybe not, but I do hope they look deeper. There may be more of me for them to know. There may be more for us to know of God as well. Don’t stop at pizza sauce. Don’t stop at the tangible.
I want to be known by these kids of mine, and our God wants to be known by you.
HLLF,
