The Most Precious of All Relationships

      I am God's servant, His friend, His daughter, His child, His sheep, His field, His building, His jewel, His Son's Bride, and the apple of His eye. If I really searched it out, I would probably find that I am many, many more things to Him. In all these ways, we relate to Him.
     I am discovering that each one of us has a unique relationship with Him, one in which, we cannot push on others, nor them on us. There was a song I learned as a child, whose words are:


I am Jesus' little lamb,
Ever glad at heart, I am,
For my Shepherd gently guides me,
Knows my needs and well provides me,
Loves me everyday the same,
Even calls me by my name.


     Because He calls us by our name, indicates that He knows us individually and uniquely, and by implication, He relates to us in like manner, and we relate to Him likewise. For example, I talk to Him throughout the day in my thoughts, and in my heart. I know He is near me at all times listening and responding. I know it by faith and trust. I don't have a formal relationship, but one which is near and dear, although I do highly respect and revere Him. On the other hand, I live in the light of His grace, which I desperately need daily, but try not to take it for granted. I am His and He is mine. I love to have Him reveal truth to me, and trust the His Holy Spirit will lead me there, even as I ask Him. I respect His timing, but usually want things to be revealed sooner. If I didn't know forgiveness was there for me, I could not live near Him, but would run and hide. I know what life is like without Him, because I've lived there before, and it is a literal hell on earth without hope. As He will never leave me, I would be a fool to leave Him. After I've found what I was looking for, through His Son, why would I ever go back into the land of the lost, after experiencing the land of the Living?
     Thank you, Jesus, for being the bridge that led me back to our Father, so I could know Him and be with Him forever and ever.
     How do you relate to our Father? It sometimes helps to write it down and look at it, as I have. It helps to realize just who He is to you, and who you are to Him too, which warms the heart with gratitude and awe. It also helps to want to share Him with others, so that those who are lost can also have, cherish and embrace Him as we do, and so that they can experience His love and grace in their life and "be found." We are the ministers of reconciliation, who have been given this ministry of telling about Jesus, His Son, who provides the way back to the Father.