Walking the path

At my first time in church after accepting Jesus as my Savior and Lord, I heard someone starting their prayer saying, “Lord Jesus.” I fell into the habit of praying that way. Eventually, I shortened it to “Lord” while praying directly to Jesus. There is nothing wrong with doing that. In fact, Jesus said we could ask him anything. My relationship with God was primarily with Jesus.

Over the years, I began to see in scripture that Jesus was here to take us to his Father. When he taught the disciples to pray, he taught them to start, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” Since then, my relationship with the Father has grown. It isn’t at all what I expected.

When I was about four years old, we lived in an apartment, and across the street was an undeveloped swampy area. My brothers and I liked to play in a stream between the swamp and the road. The stream was small enough for my three older brothers to jump across. Usually, when I was outside, one of my brothers would be with me to keep me out of trouble. None of them were around one day, and I decided to go to one of our favorite spots, about a block from our apartment, and play near the little stream. It was very muddy that day, and I was sitting in the mud, digging in the dirt to make new little streams. My brothers had told me some snakes lived in that area, but I had never seen one.

Suddenly, my mother appeared. She rarely came looking for me, as she would send one of my brothers to get me if she wanted me for something. I didn’t know that she even knew where this play spot was. She was upset. When my mother took me back up on the road, she took all my clothes off except my underwear. She said there was sewage in that stream. She was so upset I didn’t dare ask what sewage was. I remember being very embarrassed to walk home with her holding my hand and being dressed only in my underwear. When we got home, she took me straight to the bathroom and gave me a bath. I assumed that she was upset because I got dirty.

My mother wanted me to be clean, but she saw something in me that was more valuable than my cleanliness. She saw it even when I was dirty. Once I was clean, it no longer mattered that I was once dirty. As my relationship with my heavenly Father grew, I realized he saw me like that. The Father saw value in me that I didn’t know I had. As I got to know the Father, he was much more than I ever realized. Jesus and the Holy Spirit continuously clean me up for the Father.

I tried to understand the Father using what I had learned of him in the context of scripture. Both the scripture and my own experience showed me the incredible kindness and love of the Father. I also began to see that Jesus was more like him than I previously understood. When he was contained within the human body on the earth, only a tiny portion of what he was like could be seen.

Being clean is an essential part of life. But there is a lot more to life than just being clean. Each day brings a new adventure. I am trying to be sensitive to the Lord’s leading so that I can walk with him as if this is my last day.