celebrity skin

At night, I stare through the creamy gossamer canopy that creates a spurious shelter around my bed. I can't sleep. I've been listening to Lindsay Lohan's "Confessions of a Broken Heart" song. Its' words, like piles of broken shells are strewn in my consciousness.

I remember a summer long ago when I stood in the ocean and let it's fearful and strange wetness inundate my skin, my face, my hair. I squander my time thinking about how similar and fearful it feels sometimes to letting oneself be known by another person. How like it is to having a guarded yet crafted celebrity skin that becomes transparent in one camera flash...

Then I open God's word and instead of the fear, I slowly feel the gracious freedom of being known by God, by the one God who is always faithful and will never fail me. How like Him to gather me up with all the taters of my desperate faith and in His great mercy place me again in the shelter of His arms. How like this sinner to try and build my own shelter with proverbial popsicle sticks when I have a Father who protects and provides. How like Him to patiently teach me to swim in the overwhelming ocean of His love and grace in Christ Jesus!

"I said, 'oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest-I would fly away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the storm and tempest.'" psalm 55