There is only one today.
And as I stand just inside the foyer of 2012 with my fingers wrapped around His ageless hands, hoping I can somehow scoot near enough to know Him as Counselor, He whispers one phrase.
From a group of women gathering to discuss, to my own personal study, and off the lips of the man giving the message up-front came the same phrase. His Words are alive. Spoken then, reverberating now, they are the best thing around.
Christ in you. (Colossions 1:27)
Not Christ-in-me when my circumstantial strains let up, not Christ-in-me when my seven year-old prayer is answered, not Christ-in-me when I’ve had my very best day putting forth my very-best me. Christ in me, now.
This can’t be true. If it is, it changes everything.
I’m writing here, I’m telling you, because every day I have to tell myself. I am making a habit out of declaration. Adoration is the practice — the habit — of teaching my heart new Truths, age-old Truths, by adoring the Teacher. I’m sweeping house of the musty, mold-ridden thoughts by replacing them with new aroma, even when I feel musty myself.
(So, each Monday, the column of 
adoration to the right-side of my blog moves front-and-center, here, and I invite others who are doing the same — stretching their heart to lift God’s Word up and back to Him, despite every obstacle the day presents — to add their link below in the comments section. You can link people back here from your post by grabbing the code on the right side of my blog. If you don’t have a blog but are, yourself, a lover of words and of God and of God’s word, feel free to add an adoration of your own in the comment section. Whether there is one of us or one hundred — and even if the words are written “merely” on our hearts — we will give Him the praise He’s due.)
Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27**
This changes everything. You, babe in the manger that mystical, magical night when the sky broke open with the songs of angels, have chosen a resting place. Inside of me.
Hope for me, is You in me, not me getting closer to You. You are already here, the great mystery. I feel far and You whisper that You are close. You have always been close. Closer than I can conceive. Waiting graciously on my understanding of this 2000 year-old Truth. You left them on that terribly wonderful weekend of death and new life so that You could live here, in me. It was “to their advantage” — and, mine, too.
God came near. Glory. It happened once, it broke through the expanse, but each day is now pregnant with opportunity. God is near. Inside. And I get to participate. Who are You, oh God who involves me by living inside of me?
When the enemy launches seething whispers about how far away You are and how deserving I am of Your distance, Your Word counters. You are nearer than even the dearest of humans, those who have moved my heart. You inhabit my frame with an understanding of me that my mind cannot comprehend.
But more than just knowing me, You give me access to You. And then You offer me a lifetime and into eternity to unlock it.
Oh, God of access, I worship You. I adore You, the One who promises that not one day is wasted when You live inside of me.
The darkness closes in, and fear haunts, but You are working another angle. I love You, God who transforms my insides. I look out but You are working from within.
I feel powerless, but You remind me of how You created the heavens and the earth and how that same You rests within me. I feel alone, but by this very phrase You shatter what I’ve believed to be communion. You tell me that I’m not needing to reach to link arms with the external, but that a new relationship awaits me right here at home.
You are at home in me, God, and have given me a lifetime — that starts with one day, today — to find myself intertwined in You. I thought I knew You, and You chuckle. You are so gentle with me in my limited perspective. I adore You, God, patiently alluring me in deeper.
I have only just begun to pursue this latent mystery.
I love You, God unending.
* Photo courtesy of Mandie Joy Photography
**For a context to this little space on my blog, read: Why I Adore. You can easily subscribe to these devotional meditations as they are delivered, by using this feed: http://www.EveryBitterThingisSweet.com/posts/chai/feed or by entering your email address in the second box on the right-hand side… (scroll up a bit).
