Love Has Written Our Name

I can still remember when I first gave myself to God. I was sixteen, wondering what life was all about and desperately looking for something that would give my life a sense of direction and purpose. … Just a few days before, a close school friend whose God-committed life had impressed me deeply, had told me about the Cross.

He had explained to me that the crucifixion was God's way of showing how much I mattered. I took my friend’s words seriously. Looking into the night sky, I remember saying something like this: “God, thank you for your love that I see on the Cross. I give my life to you. Please come into my life and do whatever you want with me.”

It was a profoundly significant moment for me. I did not see flashing lights, or hear voices, or feel goose bumps. But, from that moment on, I knew that in some deep way I had become different. No longer did I want to be at the center of my own life. I really wanted God to be God in my life.

- Trevor Hudson
One Day at a Time

From page 29 of One Day at a Time: Discovering the Freedom of 12-Step Spirituality. Copyright © 2007 by Trevor Hudson. All rights reserved. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

The author of this devotional available at The Upper Room tells us he was "changed in some deep way." That is how being real comes to us, through changes in the deepest places. The penetrating light of grace flows through every window and wall, under every locked door of our past. Deeper and deeper we are becoming new. What is counterfeit is eroded. What is authentic is decoded and we begin to know God in the face of Christ.

The "Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time" is more than an element in a story for children. It is God's mercy surpassing our human understanding, bleeding from a million wounds, looking for our face in the crowd and mouthing words of eternal forgiveness.

Love is calling our name. Love is writing our name next to His.

I have a young friend who sent me something to remind me I was cared about. A treasure. I wouldn't part with it for money or the lead in the Sound of Music. A lovely, decorated heart arrived in the mail with my name next to his. Asa is a lot like Jesus in that regard.

Love has called. Love has written. Love has remembered. Love of the deepest kind has spoken over us words of mercy and we are changed.

Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God's Sunrise will break in upon us, Shining on those in the darkness, those sitting in the shadow of death, Then showing us the way, one foot at a time, down the path of peace.
Luke 1:78-79 The Message