Week 15: Deuteronomy 2 – 14:2 and Psalms 99 – 105

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.”  Deuteronomy 6:4-5

There are few things that challenge my thinking, my theology and my pride more than the innocent and unfiltered questions about God that come out of the mouths of my children.  They are seriously the best questions!  I can only imagine the delight on the Father’s face when He hears someone ask a question about Him with absolutely no agenda other than curiosity.  No pretention.  No concern about what others in the room will think about them.  How precious is a question asked with pure wonder?

My little girl, Piper, who is 4 years old, has been stuck on a particular question for the last month or so.  It has come up in different ways, but each time, we land in the same spot.  In casual discussion, she will guide me through her discourse on how much she loves each of her stuffed animals and babies (they each get an allotted amount of her love and devotion).  Then she will get to her brother, her Daddy and me.  Depending on the day, who she loves the most between the three of us varies.  I watch her toil over the decision of who to love the most and how to most accurately define her measures of love.  My personal favorite is, “I love you to bits and pieces and infinity football fields!”  (Being a devoted Seahawks fan, she closely associates love with football!)

Then, after she has sorted out precisely how much she loves all those that are dear to her, she will look at me and say, “I don’t even know how much I should love God.”  Every time she says this, I give her the same answer.  I tell her, “Baby, you do not have to decide how much to love Him.  You get to love God with everything you have.  Don’t hold anything back from Him.”  To this, she always sucks in her tummy as far as she can and says, “I am holding my tummy back from God so He can’t get it!” and breaks out into laughter.

At this point, I imagine she is thinking of her earthly Daddy.  One of Tyson’s favorite nightly rituals is to “tickle” the kids into bed.  He gets them all riled up with squeals and screams before I come in and “tuck” them in with a soothing song and prayer.  Getting “tickled-in” is probably one of the kids’ favorite part of their whole day.  For Piper, in anticipation of Daddy coming into the room, she sucks her tummy in and tightens up all the spots that she knows are about to get attacked by tickles.  The kids LOVE this nightly ritual because Daddy’s tickles = Daddy’s love.  It is a joyful, squealy, wiggly, laughter-filled exchange of love between them and their Daddy that they look forward to at the end of every day.

Coming back to Deuteronomy 6:4-5…This is the heart of everything that Moses had said and would say to the people of Israel.  It is the heart of the whole Old Testament and is what Jesus referred to as the “greatest commandment.”  To love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul (our self) and with all of our might.  All of the Law is designed to teach us how to love God with our entire selves, in every aspect of life.

Oh Lord, let it be so!  I want to love You with my entire self, in every facet of life, holding nothing back from you.  But how?  I fail at this every day.  In one moment, I am completely humbled by your greatness and your steadfast love and joyfully offer myself to you.  In the very next moment, I have a death grip on my selfishness and my pride, despising your generous grace for me.  Oh Lord, I want to love you with all of my self, with everything that I have to love you with.  How?  How can it be done?

My mind travels back to Piper and her precious understanding of love.  When she thinks about how much to love God, she thinks about her Daddy.  She remembers the moments when she feels overwhelmed and engulfed in his adoration and love.  For her, that is when Tyson is pursuing her with his full attention.  She will hide herself under her covers, wiggling and giggling in nervous anticipation of his arrival.  When he gets to her, their eyes meet and they both know what is about to happen!  He goes for her most vulnerable tickly spots and she surrenders completely to the uncontainable joy of laughter.  She receives the love that her Daddy gives and she holds nothing back.  She is enraptured in it and fully surrendered to his affection for her.  In that joy filled moment, Piper knows her Daddy loves her more than anything and she loves him back, with all that she has.

Suppose this is what is looks like for us to love the LORD our God with our whole selves.  Perhaps it is not so much something that we muster up as something we surrender to.  Our Heavenly Father pursues us with His full attention.  He comes after our most vulnerable spots and floods them with His all-encompassing devotion.  Do we lose ourselves to the uncontainable joy of His pursuit and love?  Do we give up control and fully surrender to His affection for us?  As our Father lavishes us with Himself, do we hold back or do we open ourselves up to take it all in?

To hold nothing back in joyful surrender is the natural response of being enraptured in perfect love.  Do you know of the Father’s love for you?  Do you see the evidence of it in Jesus’ life poured out for you?  Do you see that your Heavenly Father has held nothing back to demonstrate His commitment to you?  He is not willing that you be distant from Him.

Do you know of God’s relentless pursuit of you?  Are you hiding under the sheets, eager for Him to come shower you with His devotion?  Throw back the sheets…meet His gaze, and surrender yourself fully to His complete adoration of you.  In doing so, we find that He is worthy of all that we have…heart, soul, mind and strength.

“We love because He first loved us.”  1 John 4:19