Lovely, Book Excerpt Part II

This excerpt continues to stay in my mind, nudging me to interact with God.  I find this description such a beauty image of a relationship--the intimacy evoked left me desiring a similar relationship with God.  I could feel myself ache to have my own best friend experience with "Lovely."  And over the past few weeks I've taken this desire to God, and He has grown it, and continues to nurture it inside me.  My hope is that you too will resonate with this passage, and that it will spur you toward deepening your own relationship with "Lovely."

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

“Lovely is a very private name for God….”

“What a perfect name for God.”

“Names are important to me.  I spend weeks with a new story searching to find the right names for characters, to hear their voice, to find who they are.  There’s a point in writing a story where I finally have the right name, and the book in my mind begins to sound different.  It sounds richer.  It begins to read in the voice of the character, and it sounds alive.

“I was a child when I met God.  God the Father was an easy concept for me to grasp, and Jesus the Son, being God who died to save my life, I often thought of as the wonderful older brother I wanted to have.  When I got to God, the Holy Spirit, and realized the Bible said He lived with me, I instinctively thought of Him as being a best friend.

“I wanted to get to know Him, and the only way I knew to do so was to have a conversation with Him.  It was hard to say ‘Holy Spirit’ and not feel like it was a formal conversation.  So sometimes I’d call Him Ancient, Wise, Wonderful, Eternal.  I was trying to get to know Him by reminding myself who He was.

“I’d say, ‘You’re showing off tonight,’ when the sunset and clouds were an incredible display of color, or I’d say, ‘It’s hot, I miss the breeze you sent yesterday,’ or I’d tell Him about my day and what I was working on.  I was just talking, trying to get to know this person I was living with.  And like a book, the name was right, but it wasn’t a conversational name.  Jesus had names like Alpha, Omega, Good Shepherd.  So I asked the Holy Spirit if He had another name I could use.  He said, ‘Call me Lovely.’

“I thought it was kind of girl’s name and corny and stupid of me to have asked.  But I think He knew.  In a week or so, He couldn’t shut me up.  I had a name for the person I was sharing my life with.  ‘Lovely, you painted a great sunset.’  ‘Lovely, Black just went chasing a rabbit.’  ‘Lovely, I’ve lost my keys.’  It was still the same simple comments, but they suddenly turned into God and I having a conversation.  And in a few more weeks, it was ‘Lovely, I’m lost on how to help in this situation,’ and ‘Lovely, why did I say that?’  I started to trust Him with the emotions behind my actions.  And now it’s ‘Lovely, where should this story go next?’  And ‘Lovely what am I going to do about this guy that just showed up in my life?’”  She smiled.

“He listens to all that stuff.  He smiles at me a lot.  God said call me Lovely, and I fell more in love with Him that day.  I had this huge open hole inside that so desperately wanted love, and God filled it up with himself.  His name was reminding me He loved me.  Every conversation just adds another certainty to that.

“Lovely is His character.  And Lovely is His company.  And Lovely is how He treats me.  Lovely is God.”

Full Disclosure, Dee Henderson, Pages 366-367.