Republished from my personal Facebook account in lieu of my annual birthday reflections.

Song of Solomon 2:10-14

My beloved spoke, and said to me:
“Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away.

For lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of singing has come,
And the voice of the turtledove
Is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth her green figs,
And the vines with the tender grapes
Give a good smell.
Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away!

“O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the secret places of the cliff,
Let me see your face,
Let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet,
And your face is lovely.”

So this is love…

Tis but the greatest life to live when you’re in Love with someone so beautiful, someone so wonderful, and someone who’s made of pure Love, that He chases after you, wherever you are – even in the deepest darkness, no matter what you’ve done – He will want you anyway. That is my love story with my Lord Jesus Christ.

This love story is initiated by the Bridegroom, our Lord Jesus Christ. He initiates. He loved us first. We are then given the opportunity to respond as bride-to-be’s. But seriously, with such awesome display of Love and sacrifice by Him, how would it be possible for us not to respond, jumping up and down with joy?

This birthday, although my body was down, I was the recipient of such overwhelming Love by Him that I can only bow down in worship and adoration for Him being so beautiful and so wonderful. He is Perfect. I don’t deserve any single bit of His attention and affection – I’ve made crazy mistakes and I am far from perfect but He just never gives up on me. To tell you about my process of going all the way for Him – it was quite a journey. During the early stages of my walk, I would just be so afraid of giving up things that I needed to surrender to be able to truly follow Him. I would cry myself to sleep, just by being so overwhelmed by His perfect, perfect Love and not being able to reciprocate it. But He was so patient and gentle on me. He would encourage me on and give me the hunger to know Him more. As I knew Him more, the more my eyes were opened to how beautiful His Person is, and the more reasons I had to trust in Him. I could say that the more I knew Him, the more joy that flooded my heart, and the more I had the reason to trust Him. I continued on until He made me brave enough to surrender everything to Him. He is worth it.

Now it’s been 6 years and there’s no turning back. I am absolutely in pure joy and gratitude for Him walking with me in this life. His heart is so beautiful, that I can rave on and on and on about Him for hours, because He is soooo good and He’s the purest Love one can ever experience in this world and beyond. I’m so passionate to share this to you my friends because I’d love for you to experience the same. This life is just so wonderful because of Him alone. Whenever I feel that nobody loves or cares about me, I simply look at the Cross – goodness, He died for all of our sins. He paid for something we screwed up about. He didn’t deserve it and yet He did it all for Love. What manner of Love is this? I just can’t comprehend this and yet I’m blown away with such goodness and mercy. How can I ever say that nobody loves me? How? Ahhh!

Since I came to know Him, I’ve learned the true meaning of rest. I can have the most peaceful sleep because I can cast all my worries on Him, and I know that the one who holds tomorrow is my Beloved, who has such a good heart, and who loves me that even trials that come my way will always be for my good. He is the love of my life, my all in all. In Him, I live, and move, and have my being.

Thank you so much for remembering and greeting me on my 36th! If you ask if I feel old, I really don’t, I just feel like a little child dancing in the arms of my Father in heaven. Now that’s another story.