I was sitting here this morning with my youngest, feeding him Fruit Loops, or like we call them in our House, Fruity O’s, because they are from Aldi 🙂 .

I had him up on my lap and I was placing one Fruity O into each hand, and he would react with excitement as he chomps away.  I repeated this for the next few minutes, and he responded in delight!  I then took a small pile of Fruity O’s and put them on a chair next to me, and put him down, fully expecting the same reaction to having this fun snack in front of him!  To my dismay, he looked at them, and pushed them all onto the floor, and turned and reached for me once again!

God spoke to my heart in that moment using life around me…  He made me recognize that Andrew enjoying the snack, really had nothing to do with the snack itself, the snack was just a perk!  The real joy came from spending time in Daddy’s lap while HE fed the snacks to us.

Like a tree, the branches lose life when not attached to the vine.  (John 15:5).  Paraphrasing, Jesus talks about how unless you are attached to the vine (God), only then will your life bear lots of fruit, and will you taste the flavor and the joy this life in Christ brings!  When we are apart from the vine and trying to just live life on our own, apart from the source, we can do nothing, and we feel incomplete, because we are.  God designed us to stay connected to the vine, only then can we truly live!

In the same way, Andrew’s memory of that delicious snack was because he relates it to time spent with Daddy in my lap!  The snack by itself may as well just be dust, because without the experience and Joy of being with our Daddy daily, that is what it amounts to…without a pursuit for God in our life!

I want to leave you with this prayer to consider in your heart, from a book I read 5 years ago… “The Pursuit of God”.

“O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ Name, Amen….”

Tune in for more weekly  as we journey though this daily life with Christ together.