Dear Daughter,
You grew up on hopes and dreams. You would sing and dance, and wear princess dresses. And you liked to play with what I like to call Barbie’s dreamhouse, and I know you hoped to one day actually have a Barbie dreamhouse of your own. You loved it when you see a commercial for it on tv. And truth be told we all have our Barbie dreamhouses. We all have our hopes and our dreams.
But our hopes and are dreams are rarely what we hope. So beautiful one, we need to take down our dreamhouses, and begin to build something that is forever secure, our eternal home.
When I think of what my own Barbie dreamhouse would have in it, it wouldn’t have 2 children who don’t listen, and 2 parents that want to respond by taking their toys away. No, my children would always listen, we would always be smiling, there would be no tears, no milk being spilled, and no toys being thrown away.
No one would get hurt, or sick. Bad things just. wouldn’t. happen.
There would be no child afraid of their parents being angry when they don’t listen. No child who sobs when they disappoint their parents to the point they don’t want to look into your eyes out of shame, and out of fear that you don’t love them anymore.
And I want to take a moment to share about grace. Because I know that you may feel this way about God. You think you have messed up too much to ever be loved by Him. And how could someone like Him, ever accept a person like you? And maybe you are faced with a decision and you are terrified that if you make the wrong decision you won’t get to heaven, apart from the ones you love most. And maybe you can’t bring yourself to look into His eyes because you are fearful of His wrath, without remembering the depth of the love that died on the cross for you.
I get it. And I have been there. And I want to tell you that there is hope. And there is grace. And there is unending love, from a good Father.
His love for us is greater than His anger for the things we have done, and the idea of perfection that we can never live up to. He knows that. He knows that we can never earn His love by our works. And He stills loves us anyway.
We don’t have to strive to be good enough for His love, or try to reach for it, because He comes to us. He extends His hand to us when we call out His name.
That is grace. God giving us what we don’t deserve. No longer are we under His wrath, but covered by His redemptive love. He didn’t give us what we deserved, instead He gave us His son. His Son who would endure the cross, so we could be free from what we do deserve.
We don’t have to fear His anger when we can be confident of a love that brings us freedom, a love that stands in the gap of our imperfections, calls us His, and makes us right with God. A love that sent His only Son, and that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life, in heaven with Him. Our home is secure. And it is an eternal place that has no tears, no fears, no mourning or grieving, no sickness, no doubts, no death.
It is the place we dream of. Not Barbie’s dreamhouse, but the place He is preparing us for when He finally calls us home. Paradise. A place where the streets are paved with gold, a place where there is no need for sun, because God’s glorify gives the city light.
Believe. Know He is God. His love is available to you, if you call on the name of His son, Jesus.
