Pinning God

Anyone reading this blog knows that I am engaged to a most wonderful man. Jonah and I are to be married March 6th, 2010, and we are so excited! Everything about Jonah screams wonderful to me. His sweet disposition, strength, wisdom, tenderness, humility....so much like Jesus. I have learned so many lessons from this man. For example, yesterday we this conversation on the phone:

Jonah: You are due for a good squeeze. When I see you I am going to pick you up and spin you around and then flip you over.

Me: (loving this flirtatious banter) No! You will not! 'Cause I am gonna beat you up.

Jonah: Ha, ha. No you won't.

Me: Yes I will. I will beat you up and wrestle you, and throw you to the ground.

Jonah: I will put you in a headlock and kiss your face.

Me: Na-ah. 'Cause I will pin you down and never ever let you up and what are you going to do about that huh mister?

Jonah: Well, I guess I will just have to let you.

I guess you are wondering what I could have possibly learned from this. Well, I began to think about how easily Jonah can overpower me (the benefit of being engaged to a man who used to bodybuild). Anytime we wrestle, he pins me - and I LOVE every second of it. Ocassionally though, he will allow me to pin him and then ask me, "You think I can't get out?" and I lie with great delight, "You can't, I have you pinned," and then Jonah swiftly proves me wrong while I laugh and squeal like a 3 year old.

Jesus and I have this very interesting relationship where He kind of shows me things through secenrios in my life....giving me glimpses of Himself through my relationships here. After I got off the phone with Jonah yesterday, I thought about God and how often He allows me to pin Him in a box...pin Him to an idea....a doctrine....pin His name to a problem....and how easily He could get out. Why doesn't He just prevent me from pinning Him at all? Or when I do pin Him, why doesn't He show me how easily He can escape?

This morning as I walked around the Ocoee River by myself and had "church" with the King, He answered my questions. I was staring into the water thinking about how much fun Jonah and I have wrestling and trying to work out in my mind what God was trying to show me through this analogy...and that is when I got my answer.

God lets me pin Him so that I can have fun when He gets up! No joke. I realize that this sounds ridiculous but it is exactly what He showed me. Every time I pin God to a problem, doctrine, etc. to which He should not be pinned, He is permitting it. He could choose to reveal the misunderstanding immediately. He could point out how much stronger and wiser He is than me. Instead, He allows me to wrestle Him for a moment and then pin Him as long as I like. Eventually, He asks, "Do you really think that I cannot get out of this? Do you really think you can keep me pinned to this?" As I say "Yes," the Lord rolls out of my grasp in an instant and reveals how He is not the cause or linked to the idea... then I laugh, smile, cry, and stand in awe as God lets Himself out of my grasp time and again. It is like a game He plays with me, and loves just as much as I do.

Sitting by the river, I smiled really big and tears rolled down my cheek as I thought about just how wonderful my life is.

Thank you for wrestling with me, Abba. We have so much fun!