Relationships--we are not alone! by Linden Malki

John, in his vision of God reaching down to Earth and preparing the end of time as we know it, tells of Jesus at the door of His church, knocking for His people to answer and invite Him in to fellowship. This invitation is not for strangers, but for people who should already know Him. There are those who claim to know who He is, and what He requires, but He is still remote and not involved in their daily life. He had already spent two thousand years speaking to those who would listen, but even after another two thousand years there are still those who know about Him, and may even spend a lot of time talking to Him and but don't actually listen to Him.  There are times when He approaches us, and we realize that we are not walking alone; and there are times when we need to stop and clear our cluttered minds, and do it His way from the start rather than having him straighten out the mess we made on our own.

He also wants us to know ourselves--it's easy to take other people's valuation of us, which can be anywhere from dirt underfoot all the way up to too good to be true. St Paul advised the Romans: "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you." (Romans 12:3) This applies in the other direction as well; we occasionally see the poster that says "God doesn't make junk". This is true, He doesn't, but we don't have to look around much to see that we can do that on our own. Jesus said to "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." So if we keep our eyes on Him, He will have His eyes on us, and we don't need to worry who we are because He knows us better than we do.

And He gives us a world--a creation that is wild and beautiful, and that helps keep us "grounded". We should be constantly aware of the beauty of the world, and our place in it, the incredible place He made for us to live; and we also need to be aware of the world of people, those who He put in our lives for us to relate to as His sons and daughters, both for good and for challenges. We need to be aware of our blessings--a God who wants to be in relationship with us; who made us and blesses us; and a beautiful world that is full of His children, for us to share His blessings with!