By Jessica Brodie

Have you ever gotten an unexpected gift that made you feel really loved?

It sounds silly now that I’m talking about it, but one Christmas, my husband and I decided all of our kids needed to have their own special cup. The cups weren’t cheap, but they were good quality, and they were excited about them. I didn’t even think about buying one for myself because they were pricey—and frankly, as a grownup, I didn’t “need” a special cup.

But on Mother’s Day, they all surprised me with my very own special cup. They picked out one with my initial, a pretty design, and colors they knew I'd like.

It’s been years since that Mother’s Day. Now three of those four little kids are in college! But this morning when I went to take a sip of water, I chose that cup to use. And when I looked down at it, suddenly I remembered how appreciated that unexpected gift made me feel—that I mattered enough to them that they wanted me to have my own special cup, too. They thought of me, they included me, and they wanted to do that for me as a gesture of love.

It still feels just as sweet all these long years later.

It reminds me of God’s love. I don’t mean God’s love in the general sense—how he loves us all, how he sent his Son for all of us, how he created a place in heaven for us if we repent and believe and follow him. I mean those certain, very specific moments I have felt God intimately and personally in my life. Those moments when I’ve felt his hand stretched out, grasping toward me, his whisper meant specifically for my ears, the thought or insight or vision he has placed in my mind.

It doesn’t happen all the time, but looking back over my life, I remember particular times I felt fully and intimately connected with my Lord.

That time late at night on the beach when I looked up at the sky and saw his face.

That dream he gave me that, when I woke up, made me realize it hadn’t been a dream at all but a vision, an actual divine encounter when I made a choice for him definitively and eternally.

That time when my infant daughter had a clogged tear duct, and I was so worried about her having to endure surgery and anesthesia again after having her ear tubes put in. And how, when I prayed, deeply and fervently, and placed my hands upon her head, I actually felt the Lord’s power heal her beneath my fingertips.

That time, driving to work, when I looked up and saw a cloud part and God gave me a vision for what would become my debut novel, The Memory Garden.

That time when I was sobbing on the bathroom floor and I felt him right there with me—fully and unmistakably there with me.

I can’t explain those times adequately. I’m not sure I’m meant to. It’s a knowing I possess deep in my soul, deep in the Spirit within me, that recognizes my Lord loved me enough to gift me with something infinitely precious: a divine encounter.

What an honor that is! What an honor that we, mere sinful and broken and powerless human beings, are beloved by the God of the Universe. What an honor that he chooses to have an intimate, personal, genuine relationship with us, parting the waves and the clouds just so we can see him in the middle of our earthly lives.

God loves us all generally. We’re all his creation, and we are precious to him. But I also know God loves us—loves me!—specifically.

Personally.

Intimately.

And he wants us in his kingdom.

That truth inspires me to do better—to love like him, to live in a way that shines his light, to appreciate and honor and adore him all the more.

I’m not sure where you are in your life, my friend, and I don’t know if you know this truth. But today I urge you to stop a moment… to sit quietly within your own skin and turn your thoughts to the Creator, our Father God, who loves us. Who loves you.

I urge you to know that he really does love you personally—it’s not generic.

Scripture tells us this truth as well, a truth that is peppered throughout God’s Word from beginning to end.

In Isaiah 43:1-2, God says, “But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze’” (NIV).

Psalm 139:13-16 reminds us, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Jesus in Luke 12:7 assures us, “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.”

I close with a prayer, and I hope you’ll join me:

Father God, thank you for loving me personally, intimately, truly. Thank you for knowing me, knowing my innermost thoughts, for seeing me as an individual beloved by you. Thank you for allowing me to be your child. Help me to know that love and to cherish and honor that love by loving others and walking with you every step of my day for every moment I have left on this earth. And when those moments are done, help lead me home to you forevermore. In the holy and precious name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

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