Intimacy

Intimacy is an art. Intimacy is art. Art can be intimacy. When I think of intimacy, and I am not talking sexually, I think of a tapestry. All the individual threads woven together, not knowing when one ends or begins, creating a beautiful picture for the world to see. It takes skill, it takes pricking one's finger, it takes time...so much time. And yet the result- is amazing!

I was reading an article in People magazine and I was struck by a quote from Elizabeth Edwards (John Edwards' wife), who is writing a memoir of her journey with cancer as well her life in the public eye. "No marriage is perfect. John and I have argued, we have disagreed about the children and about jobs, about why he insists on going for a run at dinnertime. From time to time we have been disappointed in one another, because that is the nature of real intimacy" (pg. 74, August 20, 2007).

I loved that! Real and true intimacy cannot come without troubles, or pains on the way. Intimacy arises out of need and love for another person. Closeness, familiarity, bonded, deep understanding, relationship and a warm friendship are all synonyms for intimacy. One of the sentences used in the dictionary to describe intimacy stood out to me: "the absence of fences created a mysterious intimacy in which no one knew privacy".

Yesterday, while running errands, I heard a song that I hadn't heard in a long while. Michael W. Smith was singing it this time. I don't know the title (maybe Breathe?) but the words are: 'This is the air I breathe. Your Holy Presence Living in me. This is my daily bread. Your very Word Spoken to me. And I'm desperate for you. And I'm lost without you.'

My kids wanted to know what 'desperate' meant. I explained- when you have a great need, a yearning, an intense desire and then I explained that the song was talking about being desperate for Jesus.

Intimacy with our Saviour- arising out of our desperate need and love for a presence in our lives that is SO much greater than ourselves! I always hear the analogy about letting God into our houses, even our closets. I laugh because I am a clutter queen, and if you open the drawer to find a dish cloth, you just might find markers, stamps, or money! Many times when people are over my house- I see them starting to open the drawer, or cabinet and I am dive rolling over furniture to stop them so they don't see my mess inside. And yet...intimacy is such a strong aspect of our Christian lives together and disappointment happens. Even when I disappoint my Father in Heaven- I know He still loves me.

Psalm 142:5-7
I cry to you, O LORD; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living."
Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.

Are you feeling intimacy with the Heavenly Father? Are you desperate for Him? What prison is keeping you from pursuing Him freely? prison of guilt? prison of addiction? prison of apathy? prison of sin? prison of your past? Isn't it amazing how different all our prisons can look and yet they all keep us from praising the father in Heaven and they keep us from true intimacy with Him and many times with those around us.

Praying for you. Julie