Non Verbal Communication - the Little Children

I hear people say that marriage is about communication, but after I was married almost 15 years, it becomes more non-verbal communication.  You pretty much have exhausted the “getting to know you stage.”  It can be the way a person lights up when you come in the room, smiles at you, enjoying holding hands together at church, sitting next to each other in a car, painting a deck together, and enjoying each other’s presence/company.  Missing a person who has passed on to another life is not missing their memory.  I don’t miss conversations with that person, I miss that person’s very essence in my life.

The little children wanted to touch and sit in Jesus lap.  

People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.  When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. Mark 10:13-14

I laugh now when I hold my one-year old grandson, because I realize when he comes to me, he really does not want to sit in my lap, he just sees something he wants to get into and he knows if I pick him up he is at a higher vantage point so he can get in to it.  Sometimes I wonder if that is how I am with God as far as I want the higher vantage point to get what I want. 

Or do I just enjoy God because I want to be with him and enjoy his presence and spend time with Him?

         

Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Psalm 100:2

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.  Psalm 22:8

I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10

I heard a good illustration that God’s presence is everywhere that God’s presence was in the pit I was in before I knew him, God’s presence is in my life now in grief even when I don’t feel his presence, and God’s presence is even in hell.  

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. Psalm 139:7-13

It is very hard with early spousal loss and I’ve spoken to widows that have a difficult time even after 15 years of being single.  It’s weddings, holidays and special events that they miss the presence of their loved one for their children.

I would compare it to the short time that Adam and Eve had in the garden of Eden, and then they were ousted for eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Next, they experienced the loss of two sons when Cain killed Abel and Cain was banished.  Same thing happened to David when he lost Absalom and his son was banished.  In both instances, their sons could have been put to death right away.  I know for some people a life sentence is worse than death, because you have to live with the guilt.  It is similar in losing a spouse as far as you have to deal with the loss, and I just ask the Lord to help me have a reckless abandonment in him, because I don’t deal with this type of early loss very well.  Not having my parents, sister, and being divorced previously, this tops it all.

It’s harder to have that reckless abandonment to God when you don’t have certain needs met in your life.  Needs for protection, security, feeling needed and wanted, financial, and affection (Philip. 4:19).  The Bible says, “If we have food and clothing” we are to be content (1 Tim 6:18). That is where you say, “Thank you God that you have my best interests at heart, and thank you that you have a plan for my life, and you are helping me fulfill your plan.” (Philip 2:13)

Once in a while when I am down, I just want a hug.  Sometimes I got scripture quoted at me from people at church or how I should be thankful, but that is not what I need from people.  I read in a men’s column how a knight in shiny armor is a man who will hold his wife without any sexual connotation that is so true, because I used to have that problem with my husband, where he never could do that.  I’ve spoken to other Christian wives that never got that “holding.”  I rarely could get my husband to hold me.

So I rarely find Christians that hug very much.  In Bible days, they greeted one another with a holy kiss. (Romans 16:16, 2 Cor. 13:12, 1 Cor. 16:20, 1 Thess 5:26, 1 Peter 5:14)

One of my favorite songs I love was written by a single Christian artist, Rich Mullins who is now with Jesus called “Hold me Jesus.”  I’ve asked God many times in my grief to please God, “Just hold me right now, because I am shaking like a leaf.” 

Reminds me of the woman who had the issue of blood that said, “If I can just touch the hem of Jesus garment, I will be made whole.”  Luke 8:40-48

I spent two years of my Christian walk living in a camper/tent with my son and traveling around the United States in street evangelism in this group called Christ is the Answer.  It was the reckless abandonment to God.  That was before I became a sophisticated Christian or an Aristocrat. It’s sort of one reason now, I’m thinking about when I retire maybe in a few years, I would like to back pack around Europe for a few months and meet people.   I like that song “Happy Wanderer.”  I used to sing that when I was a little girl.  I spent a lot of time in the woods by myself singing the Sound of Music songs, “Climb Every Mountain.”   I love being outdoors and in nature.   That is why I love boating so much. It’s looking at the clouds and enjoying the beauty of nature on the lake.

The Happy Wanderer

I love to go a-wandering,
Along the mountain track,
And as I go, I love to sing,
My knapsack on my back.

Chorus:
Val-deri,Val-dera,
Val-deri,
Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Val-deri,Val-dera.
My knapsack on my back.

I love to wander by the stream
That dances in the sun,
So joyously it calls to me,
"Come! Join my happy song!"

I wave my hat to all I meet,
And they wave back to me,
And blackbirds call so loud and sweet
From ev'ry green wood tree.

High overhead, the skylarks wing,
They never rest at home
But just like me, they love to sing,
As o'er the world we roam.

Oh, may I go a-wandering
Until the day I die!
Oh, may I always laugh and sing,
Beneath God's clear blue sky!

Hold Me Jesus: Rich Mullins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9T3tL5U67w