Relationship

Lord, it’s morning. I slept weird. Please, please, please, what would You say?

You don’t have to beg. I’m right here. I never moved.

But…

But what? You think your only value to Me is as a servant? As a scribe? What about Love? What about, I love you. Not, I love what you are doing for Me, which is the same as saying, I love Me–but, I love you.

That’s why I want you to stop picking your fingers–I love your fingers, I love everything about you. I made the little quirks that make you who you are. I’m proud of you, I bless you and I love you. I’m for you, I’m with you, I’m in you. And then, last, I’m through you. You’ve reversed the order. The order is important. It’s progressive in understanding and experience and maturity. I Am not looking for servants, but friends, remember? Friends share with one another. Friends talk things out.

Friends ask, what can I do to help? Friends hear your need and offer solutions, just like your friend did yesterday, and just like you did, in your last conversation. Let Me be your Friend again–the One you can tell anything to, the One with helpful advice. Not just your Lord, which for you is a loaded word that segues into Master and which puts distance between us. Ours is a different relationship.

I came to earth in part to model that different relationship and in part to encourage different types of relationships between humans, relationships based on an idea of equality as Children of One God. That is why Paul could write, there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, for all are one in Christ Jesus. He was trying to point to the equality and worth of every human being. In that society, free Jewish males were at the top of the food chain. Slaves, non-Jewish “gentiles” and females were at the bottom. In your society, there are similar distinctions. Landed white property owners became the Free. Workers, even non-slave workers, became the servant class.

Master/servant, boss/worker, free/not-free is pervasive, all around you. You still struggle with believing this duality is from Me, when I came to abolish it once and for all.

You have been and continue to be a “good and faithful servant.” But I want more. Go sit by your Pete and come and sit stream side with Me. Let’s renew our vows; let’s be more than Lord and servant. Let’s be Friends. Let’s Love one another. That is the foundation for loving anyone else, you know. You love Me–now receive My Love, in all its manifestations and gifts.