Do you ever have a reoccurring phrase, thought or word that just keeps appearing? This week, three different times I had a long, meaningful, God-filled conversation where the term “God kiss” was used. A wonderful moment was described as “God kissed.” I love and relate to so many things about this article I found on the Consider Joy blogsite. I hope you enjoy it as well.
God Kisses
God is the creator of life. Some people say he set all things in motion and just walked away – leaving us on our own to manage and walk through the chaos alone. I know this to be absolutely false. God’s spirit is still moving in and through everything He’s made. He sustains it all and especially us.
I love my kids – all four of them. I hurt when they hurt. I smile when they are happy. I rejoice at their successes; and I cry when they are down. I feel a physical pain when they are suffering. I would do anything for them and desperately want them to be healthy and happy. In light of these deeply rooted “mom passions”, I reflect on this verse:
If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better? Matthew 7:9-11 (MSG)
If I, as a fallible human being, can feel the way I do about my children, how does a perfect God feel about me?
Consider another of my favorite verses:
The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing Zephaniah 3:17
I can’t read this verse without smiling. God is here, in our midst all the time. He is mighty. He saves. That’s all pretty cool! But – what??? He rejoices over us with gladness? He quiets us with His love? He exults over us with loud singing? Wait – what??? God sings!!! And over us….
And let’s define “exult”; frankly, I had to look it up. The definition of exult is: to show or feel elation or jubilation, especially as the result of a success; or triumphant JOY. God feels and shows His triumphant JOY over us with singing. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to hear that one day.
Just because we don’t hear it with our ears here on earth, doesn’t mean we can’t experience it here.
When my mom was suffering day in and day out during her brain cancer journey; we struggled to care for her. How did God feel when he looked down on our circumstances? I believe, for sure, it was with compassion and a longing to quiet our souls.
Do you know how I know this? Throughout the ordeal, He sent us what I like to call “God Kisses” to remind us of His unwavering love. I think He sends us “Kisses” more often than we realize; but, often we are too busy to notice. Sometimes they are big, sometimes they are small – but they should always make you smile. They remind me of a father’s gentle kiss of comfort on your brow, or a tight squeeze of reassurance. There were many moments of God’s comfort during Mom’s journey.
Here is one story. The story is funny, quirky, somewhat insignificant in the grand scheme, but also miraculous all at the same time. My mom went to Hawaii with her sisters and mother for a girl’s vacation one summer. My mom was amazed and awed by Hawaii’s indescribably beautiful flowering plants and shrubs; so much so, she tried to bring a little piece of “Hawaii heaven” back to New Jersey with her.
Her favorite purchase on the trip was a plumeria stalk. Plumeria is a flowering plant with delicate, delightfully scented flowers. The blooms are used to make the famous Hawaiian lei necklaces. But when you first get this plant, it literally looks like a stick with a few roots. She planted it in an indoor pot (they’re tropical) and watered and fertilized it faithfully for years. Over maybe 8 years, it grew to be about 7 feet tall. It had lots of leaves, but never a flower in all those years. Until, the first day of Mom’s radiation.
That morning, when I went over to the house, I noticed a different kind of growth at the top of the tall plant – it was almost like a trio of knots (hmmm…a nod to the trinity?…). As we drove to radiation 5 days a week for 6 weeks, I noticed the knot gradually changing day by day. It wasn’t long before we noticed tiny pink flowers begin popping out. This was October. They usually bloom in the spring for about three months at a time.
Wait for it….. Mom’s previously, 8-year-barren plant, continued putting out little, delicate, sweet scented flowers for an entire year! From October to the following November, that plant kept spitting out “God Kiss” after “kiss” after “kiss”. Flowers would bloom and fall daily. I would pick up the blooms and inhale the scent almost like smelling salts for a weary soul. The simple, unexpected shower of beauty in our very chaotic lives was a balm of comfort.
Every time I picked one up, I had to grin. I could almost feel the lips of God on my forehead; consoling me, cherishing me, strengthening me, cheering me on. I would then take the bloom into Mom, and she would hold it, breath in its heavenly scent – likely reminded of a Hawaiian paradise or better yet, what beauty lay in store for her one day in her Heavenly Father’s paradise.
“God kisses” are like getting an I love you note in your lunchbox; both surprising and soul-warming.
The Plumeria is my favorite God Kiss story, but there was more. In the spring, it had become harder for mom to get around. She spent a good deal of time in the den on the couch. Conveniently, that spring, a Robin family decided to nest in a bush right in front of the den window. I feel like I can almost hear God and the Robin having a conversation about it…
God: “Hey Robin…see that bush down there, ya in New Jersey, ya that yellow house, no not that house, THAT house, yes, Now see that one bush there, that bush by the window, no not that bush over there, THAT one, ya that one, about half-way down the bush, there is a sturdy V in the branches where you and your family will be safe.”
That strong nest was front and center framed by the den window where Mom could see the new family’s progress daily. It was like a live National Geographic show playing 24/7. Mom watched with avid interest as the nest was built – the bright-blue little eggs were laid- how the mother faithfully sat on them and protected them.
Then in time, those eggs hatched and she watched the little birds grow, so helpless at first – but slowly and surely growing stronger each day. Those little beaks raised to the heavens waiting for the life-giving food their mother would bring time and again.
It couldn’t help but remind us of our Heavenly Father’s gentle, loving care of his own – us.
What made this bird story an even more precious “Kiss” – if it could ever be so – was that the nest wasn’t empty for a few weeks before another family moved in, and we got a complete encore performance. A double blessing of compassion, love, care, encouragement, laughter, JOY… lavished on us in a double-feature showing of the miracle of life.
Are you looking for the “God Kisses” in your life? I believe His love for us is so all encompassing that it just overflows from Him into our lives everyday.
In spite of our circumstances, or maybe especially because of our circumstances; God wants us to know we are cherished and loved. He wants us to know he is constantly cheering us on toward the goal of complete trust in Him.
Sometimes it’s in the little things that we feel those strong, loving arms embrace us, and those gentle, comforting “God Kisses” on our brow. He wants to assure that we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, He is present. He quiets our souls. He sings over us in triumphant JOY because we belong to Him.~
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? Matthew 6:26-27
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Love this story! As you go through this week, watch for those God kisses. It’s when God reminds us how much he loves and cherishes us.
For God and you,
Deb Bostwick
Blogger