How He Loves Us

I feel an overwhelming joy all too often because the Lord continues to show me that we can do anything when we have faith in Him and are obedient to his word! He loves us in every moment of the day.

In our house, we celebrate with each other whenever we can. There’s no buying and holding gifts until Father’s Day and Mother’s Day. We are never guaranteed tomorrow, so if we need to say something, we say it any day and anytime. We buy each other gifts and present them on the same day. We never miss an opportunity to say I love you, thank you, or you’re such a blessing to me.

We share this same practice in celebrating our children too. They know how much we love and care for them because we tell them frequently, daily, and sometimes twice in a row! I know how much I love them, and this makes me think about how much God loves us as his precious children.

This past Mother’s Day, I had the opportunity to share a message with the congregation of New Life Church. However, before I began speaking, I was pleasantly surprised by a special performance by my husband, who gracefully took the stage and sang “How He Loves Us.”

First, Pastor Loretta gently explains, “Your queue to go up is after the video begins. Just have a seat, and there will be one more song, and you will take the stage right after the song is finished”.

So nervously, I tread the stage in the dark, trying not to get my heels caught on anything because I do NOT want to trip and take the whole stage set scenery down with me! My eyes are adjusting to the low lights, and I struggle to find the chair she’s talking about. “Does she mean the steps?” I ask myself because I have not yet encountered a seat on stage.

Then midstage, my eyes spot the chair, and my feet move toward it. Then I SEE the seat more clearly and touch it with my hand, and it FEELS so THIN! I hold my breath (as if that will make me lighter), and I pray, pleading to God, “Please, Lord. Please don’t let me fall, please don’t let me fall, you know what it’ll do to me if I break this chair in front of everyone!”.

I sit slowly and gradually relax my weight onto the seat, and it holds me. Whew! Now I exhale slowly.

Then I hear Dylan speaking as his fingers start introducing “How He Loves Us” in a beautiful melody on the keyboard, and I think, “Oh no, not this song!” (There’s such an anointing on this song. It always touches me because I can’t even begin to fathom how much my Savior loves me.) So I tell myself, “Control yourself, Letty. You’re in front of everyone on stage. You just can’t stand up and start praising God because you’ll take away from others by being a distraction”.

The song starts, and then I realize that Dylan, who usually sings this song, is not who I hear. And I hear the very same voice that I have listened to almost every day for the last 25 years. The very same voice that serenades me every night while his fingers explore the guitar strings he caresses gently on his lap. (Okay, he’s really just playing for his own amusement, but this is REALLY how I see it. True story!)

And I want to turn my head and see for myself, but I know it’s him. And I don’t dare turn my head because I don’t want him to have to acknowledge me and lose his place, so I sit there and drink all of it in.

I feel the rhythm beneath my feet, and my ears fill with beautiful music as I differentiate the sound created by Pastor Larry, keeping the beat on the congas, Jeremy playing base right on queue. In contrast, James creates the song’s heartbeat with two simple but powerful drumsticks. I hear Earl on the electric guitar, Dylan patting down piano keys so beautifully, and the man I call my husband strumming the very same guitar that meets me in the bedroom every night, accompanied by his sweet voice.

Still, my hands long to be raised, and my heart is wholly surrendered to the one who loves me, despite who I am and what I do. Oh, how He loves us. Jesus has my heart entirely, and I sit. I am singing softly, thanking him for my very own sweet life.

There are times when we can be still and listen, but we choose to move too fast. We miss out on seeing all the parts God orchestrates so carefully in our lives. We get so busy living a life that we aren’t living life at all. We skip the little I love yous because we’re in a rush. We fast forward to the end of the story because we have to go, and we miss the beautiful sounds in between. Don’t miss out on the lovely surprises God has in store for you. I encourage you today to take some time and be still with the one who made all things beautiful because He loves us more than we can imagine and longs to spend time with us.