Intimacy with God

Tiki

Submitted by: Scott Michael Ringo

My mother has an African lovebird named Tiki who she has had for more than 7 years. Tiki has lived of a lonely life for most of the time she has had him. Each time someone would go to pick him up, to hold him, clean his cage or mostly anything that got his or her hand remotely close to him he would attack. His attacks are not little pecks; they are ravenous, vulture-like, kill strikes. When something would get near him he would attack with everything his couple ounce body had, eighty percent of the time drawing blood. Tiki saw everything as an unknown and a threat resulting in a life missing much love he could have had.

Several months ago returning home from being out to dinner with my father my mother found Tiki close to death. His body was limp and he was barely breathing. That night she held him all nightlong, as he did not have the strength to fight. A trip to the doctor revealed that Tiki had a heart attack and his liver was not doing well either. The doctor prescribed medicine for his liver that he was to take each night and given a diagnosis that he would most likely not live many days. Weak and frail, each night we would hold him to give him his medicine. As the days went by Tiki got better and amazing to the doctor regained a full recovery. Now Tiki loves people picking him up and holding him and sits much of the day waiting and watching for someone to reach down so he can jump up on their hand. Rarely does he want put down and rarely does he bite. Tiki has learned that what he has wanted all these years was right in front of him only he did not realize it for what it was.

Many have discovered that we are much like Tiki. We have longed for truelove and intimacy only to attack it bitterly thinking it would hurt us when it showed itself. The greatest of all these lovers wanting to show us intimacy is God, the creator of us. He has waited patiently throughout history for each one of us to notice Him as our lover and allow Him to engulf us in his arms of love and security. No intimacy can be greater than by the one who made us and knows exactly what we long for. Yet, we have held Him off at great distances believing that He would hurt us if we allowed Him to get close. We could not have been more wrong in our assumptions.

In Jeremiah 31:3 God told Jeremiah: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn you".

"Have you never heard or understood? Don't you know that the LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding". Isaiah 40:28

God does understand that we have all been hurt at one time by love, the church, or another and we have attached that hurt to Him. We believe the hurt came from God when it was only someone acting in His place. God would never hurt us and wants to take each of us into a safe and incredible intimacy with Him. The intimacy that we long for is right in front of us we have just not realized He has been waiting patiently for us to experience His love.

Even now, as I write this Tiki sits on the table in as close as he can to me and chirps for my attention wanting me to pick him up and show him affection. If we would look deep inside ourselves, we would also see everything within us wanting to call on God to experience His intimacy.

My Challenge to Us
Trust God once more and allow Him to lavish you with the incredible love He has for you. Do not hold back God with the hurt that you have experienced from humans doing acts in God's name. Find time each day at whatever cost and experience the love the creator of the universe has for you. Don't consume the time you spend with Him each day going through religious motions of reading or other actions, instead just sit and fall deep in love with your creator, maybe for the first time.

Write Scott Michael and let him know your thoughts on his story, by emailing him at scott.ringo@attglobal.net

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