Do you ever feel like you are talking to God through something like a muffled funnel? I guess sometimes it feels like I'm talking and then I realize that I just talked to a brick wall for about 15 minutes. Sometimes I ask God to be near but I realize He never left....I just walked away from Him. I kind of get the scene of a child walking hand in hand with their parent, but then the child sees something enticing, like a toy or a person or something shiny....the child wrenches their hand away from the parent with such intensity that the parent has no choice but to loosen their grip. The parent calls after the child but the child's hearing is impeded by the object of obsession. The child runs to the desired thing and like that the bubble bursts, and the child is left teeter-tottering on a ledge. At the moment's desperation the child has to cry out to the parent. The parent comes to save the child in a heartbeat. The child jumps in the parent's arms, crying because of the near-death experience. The parent's love for their child is one that overshadows the anger for the child's disobedience...this love is one that can not be explained.

I guess that's what I think about when I see God. He is so loving to Us. He doesn't save us from the ledge because He has to. He gave us Jesus because He wanted to be near us. His grace is truly new every morning.

Mind-boggling, isn't it?