Jesus Storybook Bible

As I think about really important things I want to make sure I leave you with in this last week of jotting down my thoughts and prayers for you for your birthday, I wanted to share with you what is perhaps my favorite illustration in the world which is the one pictured below from The Jesus Storybook Bible.  

This picture came alive to me through the Anna's eyes when she five.  On one of our last days of an incredible trip to Kenya in 2008, we were on a mountain known as “Prayer Mountain” overlooking Lodwar and the surrounding villages.  She was looking through The Jesus Storybook Bible that she had heard me read countless times when she zeroed in on this picture.  She told me that she felt she was the little girl who was running toward God the Father in the picture.  Not only was this a defining moment in her own faith, but it became a specific marker for the direction I want my focus to be: to turn toward God rather than to be overwhelmed by anything that might close my heart to Him.

This picture has become embedded in my heart reminding me that I have another path I can choose.  Rather than responding out of my own pain or failure, I am learning to pray and ask God to bend my heart to help me turn toward God and toward others.  This picture captures the way I want to live, no matter what the circumstances are. 

And, it is my prayer for you too- that you would run to God and not away from Him in the coming days, months, and years ahead. As you do, know that you will be running into the arms of God's Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.