11. The Personalised Gift

‘You have searched me, Lord, and You know me….You are familiar with all my ways’ Psalm 139: 1, 3

This week I received another love letter from my heavenly Father. A wonderful, fun, generous woman of God who I met in recent times, writes poetry God puts on her heart. She is anointed! God sent this poem to me through her.

I was writing the poem into my journal, and as I wrote, the thoughts that had been swirling in my head as I read it the first time, and second time, and third time, and twentieth time, fell onto the page one by one.

This brief blog is more of a personal reminder of God’s love for me, to refer back to for encouragement. I also hope it’s encouraging for anyone else who reads it.

My Poem

'Oh, how I love your dancing, wondering heart

A daffodil in a garden of roses, I have set you apart

Vibrant and bright in colour, you brighten up the day

When the clouds are thunderous, you shine joy in their way

My special little treasure, a song inside my heart

I love you just as much now, as I loved you from the start

Kindness, hope and love are the weapons that you wear

With every prayer watered in compassion and with care

Loyal, faithful servant, my daughter and my friend

We have a work to do, with many gardens to attend

Watering the thirsty and plucking out the weeds

Digging up lies and planting new seeds

Turn your eye to heaven, look up beyond the sky

Don't get distracted by the many questions "why"?

Like a breeze that's blowing, be forever free

'Cause even amongst the crowds, it's always you and me... '

Naomi Laird (sharing God's letter!)

I love.

I love that the theme is around flowers and gardens. My Abba knows how much I love flowers! They’re so beautiful and bring so much happiness.

I love the imagery of a bright daffodil among a bed of roses. That striking image speaks to my heart as I always see beauty in the unique or different as opposed to the standard or most commonplace ideal. So, imagery like that is attractive to me. I love that God knows my style!

I love the message about ‘many gardens to attend’. One of my favourite- if not, my favourite book is ‘The Shack’ by W.M Young. I think everyone should read this book multiple times throughout their lifetime. Sure, some people argue it was controversial in the way it depicted God, etc. But I think those arguments miss the point of the book entirely. The overriding messages within the book are without a doubt, Holy Spirit led. Each time I read that book it changes my life. Each time it enables me to put aside the damage that can be and has been done through organised religion, churches, the judgement that can unfortunately be a part of Christian peer groups at times, and the false notions about God’s character we can build up over the years. Each time it helps me to see the true character and face of God. It helps me understand the love of God in a way that is inviting, comforting, warming, and so, so healing.

My favourite chapter takes place in a beautiful but unruly, wild, garden filled with dancing light fractals and bright colours. The main character is working with the Holy Spirit in this garden cutting down weeds. The work is tiring, difficult, back-breaking, and a real struggle. But as they tend to this garden and talk through a painful, heartbreaking event in his life that the main character finds hard to overcome, as they tend to the weeds and improve that area of the garden, it is revealed that the garden is actually the main character’s soul. Wow! What a gorgeous visual! It was beautiful to start off with, and the Holy Spirit literally worked patiently and lovingly alongside the main character to tend to his personal garden and make it even more beautiful as the weeds were pulled away and the healing process began.

I was always so moved by this chapter, and have a strong picture in my mind of how I see that beautiful wild garden with light fractals dancing and shimmering; glinting here and there. I love that God reminded me of this scene in His poem to me and related it to the work He wants me to do.

I love that God knows my overthinking, wondering ways, and describes this often frustrating attribute of mine, using the word ‘dancing’. He created me, wondering mind, and all.

I love that He noticed how often I am easily distracted by asking, ‘Why?’, ‘But why God? I don’t understand why You did it that way/ why that happened/ why that didn’t fit into what I thought’, and called me out on it. This has been a particular theme of the past year. I was in the process of working on this and He acknowledged it is something to keep working on.

I love that He sees how overwhelmed I feel at times with saturation of people, crowds, stress, white noise, constant, constant, constant goings-on of daily life. He sees that all I crave is peace. Quietness. Peace. Silence. Solitude from the noise of daily life. He sees that I seek it out. And he has provided the solution. ‘Like a breeze that’s blowing, be forever free. ‘Cause even amongst the crowds, it’s always you and me’.

It’s always me and Him. Despite the crowds. That’s the key. All that matters is that my central focus point is me and Him and keeping in relationship together. That fills me with utter peace. Amongst the crowds and white noise, I will look to Him and there I will find my peace.

The thing that really jumped out for me in this poem was the personalised detail. God KNOWS me. He knows my style. He knows my mind. He knows my likes. He knows my weaknesses. He knows my worries. He knows me PERSONALLY. That really struck me while reading this poem. Wow. He actually KNOWS me. And cares enough to personalise His message to me using the details that speak to me most. He tailored His message to ME.

God intimately cares about you. Not in a generic way. Yes, God loves everybody. And that sentence can become stale or cliché. But it’s true. Furthermore, for each person, he actually KNOWS them inside out and personally. He takes time to know you and He cares about every small and seemingly insignificant detail that you care about. That is incredible.

I want to delight in knowing every detail of the character and likeness of God in the same way He delights in knowing and loving me.

Abbie

Sidenote: Naomi had met me in person only once, she was not privy to any of these details about me. She was literally a vessel for God’s message- how incredible!