Guest Post: Tamara Cross

For me to say that I have a “treat” for you today would be a gross underselling of what I am about to put before you.

Recently one of the most admirable woman I have ever had the privilege of being taught in the word by (she was my Sunday School teacher in my teen years, and a spiritual mentor in later years) crafted a Facebook post that bears sharing. It is very much in keeping with the subtitle of Finding Narnia; “Chasing Aslan In the Real World”. I can’t tell you how blessed I was by this post…and I already believe and practice this stuff.

Prepare to blessed, encouraged, and challenged. Always the mark of good stuff.

Without further ado or gilding, enjoy.

“Once upon a time…when I had done my devotions for the ten-thousandth time, grateful for Streams In The Desert and My Utmost For His Highest and the canon of scripture, and all the solid tools I had… I wanted to hold the hand that had forged the tools. Once upon a time… when I had read countless hours about the voice that commanded the winds and waves to be still, that spoke light into being, I wanted to hear that voice pronounce my name. Or say anything at all. I had spent decades reading and meditating, studying and muttering to myself… my mind a darkened room visited by occasional lamplight… and I wanted to go outside that little room and see if I could find, in the sunrise, ‘Him whom my soul loveth’, Song of Solomon 3:4. If I believed what the Word seemed to say- that He was eagerly waiting to spend time with me for all eternity- why not go find Him now? Why not? I wasn’t asking to be transported to the throne room. Didn’t want to be given a prophetic scroll. Didn’t desire to see warrior angels with mighty wings. I wanted to be with my Father and my Elder Brother, Kinsman Redeemer, Good Shepherd, Captain of the Hosts. If we were really engaged, wouldn’t it delight Him if I snuck out a window and went looking for Him? At the very worst, it would be an exercise in futility and I would have to wait until heaven. But… what if… what if? What if I wanted to go find Him because He was calling me? What if He was waiting just around the corner for me, sitting on a low stone wall, eating some bread or fish…

What’s that? Disrespectful? Irreverent? God doesn’t eat… what?

I want to have this printed on a hoodie-

‘Jesus:

Has bones, eats fish.

Luke 24:38-43′

I wanted to find out if He had a sense of humor- the nice kind. If He really liked to play on words, like in Jeremiah 1:11-12. I wanted to know if I could tag along after Him or just walk with him like Enoch did in Genesis 5:24. Be a friend to Him like Moses in Exodus 33:11. I really was just tired of staring at a page and trying to conjure Him up in my imagination. Either He was a real ‘person’ (and yes, I’m aware that none of our words cover Him) and could be really known, or I’d been wasting a lot of time when I could have been exercising or knitting or washing my hair.

And so, I decided to go find Him. It wasn’t a spectacular trip. I just decided to squinch my eyes shut and not stop until I saw… something. I prayed. I waited. I may have hummed for a while to amuse myself while I waited; I guess I may not be the most mature of all seekers. I really don’t remember all the details. But, after a while I saw… something. Shapes, colors, then movement. Of course my instant response was that I was making it all up in my imagination, so I think I shook my head to clear things, and then… there it was again. But what was that? Orange and white? What WAS that? A creamsicle? Oh… there… it’s coming into focus now… a guy in a robe (‘Of course it’s a guy in a robe’, my jaded, suspicious self said). But where’s he going? And whats that? An urn? A sundial? Where AM I? Now he’s going down those stone steps… I wonder if I can follow… NOW where are we?? A parking garage with really fancy pillars? And what’s that out the window?

Now that I’ve completely run right past your ability to suspend your disbelief, let me tell you a couple things. No person can claim that God told them something that contradicts the Bible. Or rather, they can say that, but I’m not going to believe it. Flat out, no. God will not ever in the ever of ever tell you or me something that plainly goes against His revealed Word. Having said that, I’m well aware that there is a scripture that says no man may see God and live. And then we have Moses and Elijah and Isaiah and John and others who saw abbreviated, filtered, limited presentations of Him. So, none of us can stand unfiltered and stare the real Jehovah in the face. But fortunately, He has ways around that. The voice that thunders from the heavens and makes mountains crumble really can present itself in a still, small way to ask a very personal question: ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’

The other thing that we have to consider is fruit. If you tell me that you heard from God ‘abc’ or ‘xyz’ but the result of that in your life is selfishness or lust or fear (the bad kind that has torment, not the reverent fear of God), I’m gonna have to go with “No you didn’t”. Either that or you heard Him but you really didn’t understand it. And He’s pretty good at making Himself understood. So. Again, nope. The fruit of my daily quest to go find God and hang out, so far, has been a deepened reverence for God and His Word, a more consistent heart of submission to my husband and humility toward others, and more willingness to give up my “rights” and desires for Him to give them back, when and if He wants and sees fit. He has healed me of at least one aggravating physical malady, and a host of emotional wounds. It’s a hundred times easier to get through the day without taking offense and much faster to confess and repent when I realize I have. Forgiveness can be a challenge, but at least it’s possible now, instead of painfully just out of reach. My response to each new day is real excitement, as I wonder what He’s up to, and if I’ll get to watch, or even help! The Bible comes alive with His laughter and compassion, even in the hard parts. Its never boring, because its written by, and largely about, the most interesting person I’ve ever MET. And that’s the key right there.

‘I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.’ Job 42:5-6

Before I’d just heard of Him. I’d accepted a wonderful gift… from afar. The Bible was a love letter… that I’d received by mail. The wedding proposal was brokered by my pastor at the time, essentially. How can you love someone you’ve only seen in pictures? So I did what I would advise any prospective, betrothed bride-to-be to do: I took the Song of Solomon literally and I went looking for Him. I went to meet Him. See Him. Sit next to Him. Close enough to smell Him.

The setting or place I find Him in has changed many times, and I have learned things from most of them. Sometimes, though, I will see Him and whatever is going on there, but I’m not getting a ‘lesson’, I’m just spending time with Him. Those are actually kind of my favorite- they appear to have no point beside that He likes to be with me now, before heaven. And please don’t think I’m really mature or well-behaved or special and that’s why I get to go. The qualities that got me there were maybe not the most pure or holy: willingness to try something I wasn’t sure was allowed, enough arrogance to think He’d be happy to see me, the ability to believe in an invisible world… hmm. Sounds like a typical five-year-old. My whole point is that I didn’t get to go because I’ve been good, I got to go because I wanted to, and I believed. And because He delights at the thought of being with us- ALL of us, but individually. When I’m with Him, its like I’m the only person that exists. And He never lectures me on my sins or character flaws (which are MANY), but He leads and guides me forward in repentance and sanctification just by being Him and my getting to see Him be. Have you ever heard ‘If children don’t see better, they won’t do better’? I think that’s very true. And our Father is the BEST example at EVERYTHING, and the way He sits in a chair makes me better somehow. Makes me more courageous or exposes something I’ve been keeping from Him and compels me to apologize.

My whole point is: you can go see Him too. I believe He would love that. He made you on purpose, and has been waiting for you to believe that. This whole world- all the strawberries and cool breezes and raindrops suspended from the tips of the ferns were meticulously crafted as surprises for you. Beautiful, artful things to catch your breath, make you wonder… His fingers did all that. For you. He wants you, too. Whether you ever amass enough audacity or arrogance or imagination to pack your backpack and look for the trail to where He’s camping right now, or not in this lifetime- He wants you. And please do remember that this life down here is just the preface to the book. Just the beginning. The rest goes on forever and ever and ever and ever…”