During our meeting tonight we read 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 and were impressed by the thought that the Holy Spirit is a deposit, a guarantee of something we have yet to experience. And John 16:33 reads, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." He wants us to know that things will be far better than they are in this life.
It's because our Father is the ultimate recycler! He takes us as he finds us - broken, worn out - and he renews us for a new and better purpose and function.Val explained that she's been writing down her prayers and typing them up later, and she's been quite amazed to find how many of them have already been answered.
Then he showed us something truly delightful. He told us that his Spirit is like a butterfly, so beautiful. Butterflies settle on flowers, and they fly gently and gracefully through the air. He deals with us gently and very graciously, his spirit alights on us like a butterfly on a flower. He told us that when we're in turmoil he concentrates on bringing us to a place of peace, but when we're in a place of peace he concentrates on speaking to us. He told us, 'Know who you are, you are my children - it's as simple as that! You have inherited everything that is mine.'
Val then described just what his touch is like. He takes so much care in creating us. She saw him at work constructing a bird, showing the level of care he uses in making and re-making us. He applied each feather individually in its proper place, he even dealt individually with all those very tiny, fluffy pieces, crafting and attaching them individually using a specially fine pair of tweezers, until they were perfectly in position.The tweezers are important, he doesn't work on us with a sledgehammer; that's just not possible. You cannot build with a sledgehammer, you can only knock down, destroy. The same hand cannot use both those tools!
Val was really on a roll tonight! She also pictured the process of knitting a large pullover. She explained how the work proceeds, row after row after row, with seemingly little progress. Eventually you have half a pullover front, but it still seems there's a long, long way to go. But then, you suddenly realise you have reached the arm holes, then the neck, and it's done! Our lives can be just like that, in the middle it can sometimes seem there's no real progress, we're just as bad as we always were. But, our Father promises the work will be completed, and it will!
He leaves his peace with us ('my peace I give to you' - John 14:27). His peace descends on us like a dove. He wants us to experience peace with the Father and peace with one another. This is central to his purpose, it comes as the result of loving Yahweh and loving one another.
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