The Fiercest Love and Biggest God

I don't know when I realized this, but somewhere along the way recently I realized that not only am I God's daughter... I am Yahweh's daughter.  What's the difference?  Well, just my own experience of what that means, and the difference has been huge.

I've been reading through Kings and Chronicles, and God is pretty fierce in those books.  He is fiercely loyal to his people and fiercely protective against anything that would harm them, including their own sin.  He is a jealous God, who fights for his people when they abandon him, no matter what that means.  Honestly, sometimes it makes my stomach turn, and I don't really have good answers as to why he did some of the things he did.  They seem a bit harsh at times... But one thing is undeniable: He is strong, fierce, protective, loyal.  It's a side of God I don't always think about, and if I do ponder that side I tend to think of it as the God way back in the Old Testament, Yahweh.  Those characteristics don't translate to the Father God I know.  Or they didn't until now.

I was reading in Chronicles one day and was asking God what he wanted to say to me through the passage, and I heard that I am his daughter.  Normally, that would be a common thing for me to hear without much impact because I've heard it so many times.  That day I just about collapsed in awe, gratitude and love, tears streaming down my face (always the tears...).  It had suddenly hit me that the Yahweh I was reading about in Kings and Chronicles considers me his daughter and that all of the fierceness with which he protected and loved Israel he also felt and held for me.  This Yahweh looks at me with the eyes of a loving father and will obliterate the things that try to keep me from him.   This Yahweh fulfilled the law for me in Jesus, and took the judgment for me so that he could just hold me close and forgive me over and over and over and over and over again.  It makes me want to cry, love welling up in my chest to know that this fierce, protective God; this God who parted the sea, sent plagues to free his people, defeated armies with his angels and heavenly chariots and spoke through prophets... looks at me with eyes of love and says, "You are my daughter. You are mine."

The King has called his children, me and you, to represent him in the work he asks us to do for his Kingdom.  The sons and daughters of the King have important work to do! Thinking of this with Yahweh's oversight, commission, blessing and protection... whoa.  Talk about knowing I have a place at the table?  That does it.  Being able to trust the outcomes to God? That does it. Trusting that nothing can separate me from him and his plans?  Done and done.

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