Beloved {Five Minute Friday}

I always enjoy writing for the Five Minute Friday link up with Lisa-Jo Baker.  And this week is no exception.  Every week we write for 5 minutes flat on a prompt word.  No over-thinking, no worries about editing or typos.  One of the reasons I love it is because of all the friends I write with and how accepting and encouraging they are.  If you have blog you should join us next week.  This week the word is:

BELOVED

Beloved.  Don't we all just long to feel beloved.  That most important person in the world to someone special.  Cherished and adored.  And in the wake of Valentine's Day, it is especially clear whether feel beloved or not.

Usually I do not think of Valentine's Day as a religious holiday.  And yet this year it fell right after the beginning of lent.  And so I am struck that even with my beloved husband and children and family, none of them are the ones who love me best.  It is as I tell my Jujube,  "I love you so much, but Jesus loves you more."

Why is that so easy for me to tell my children and so hard for me to really feel.  To really accept that I am Jesus' BELOVED?  I know he must of loved me very much to leave heaven and die for me.   I relate to him as friend, servant, disciple.  But BELOVED?  What an intimacy that implies.  Oh how I want more and more intimacy with Him.  I am reminded of what I recently read in Luke 20 in the Message.  "Those who are included in the resurrection of the dead will no longer be concerned with marriage nor, of course, with death.  They will have better things to think about, if you can believe it.  All ecstasies and intimacies then will be with God."

All I can do is stand amazed and hope you feel BELOVED by him as I do this weekend.