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This week, three different posts on other blogs have showed me God in a new way. Each has moved me and stirred my emotions. Let me share them with you.
First, Pinakidion shares a lesson about God learned from his son, through weaning him:

… I don’t believe that he is tapping his foot, impatient with us that we are not taking the next step on our journey. He is not standing there pleading, “For the love of me, just do this simple thing!” If I, a sinful man, can look at our son in love and accept him for who he is while completely believing in him – surely God can do the same, if not more.
This is an image of God I like because he is not some Santa Claus god, or a permissive god, or a god that is as subject to creation as I am. No. He is deliberate, loving, faithful, and most of all, present. From my perspective, all I can do sometimes is demonstrate that I am angry and frustrated and sad. He knows that sometimes I cannot or will not understand no matter what He says. Instead of getting angry, he looks to comfort, offer, and wait. The expectation hasn’t changed, but he’s not going to give up because He always trusts.

This was humbling to me. I tend to see God as distant and disappointed. I think he right on here, however, God knows me, knows what I am capable and deals with me appropriately. He does not expect me to understand concepts beyond my grasp or to act accordingly. It’s a powerful realization and a relief as well. I need not be concerned about chasing every right path and understanding. God knows me and will only ask what I am able to deliver, I need only to seek Him.
I’m left thinking also about whether I’m doing the same with my kids. Do I treat them as 7, 9 & 11 or am expecting them to act like adults? Too often I’m treating them as adults and expressing my disappointment when they don’t act like it. I need to act more like God with them.
The other two were at Patrick Mead’s Tent Pegs. First, what is our reward?

The benefit I received in marrying Kami [his wife] was: Kami. I get to be with Kami. That’s it. And that’s wonderful. She is complex, interesting, mysterious, changeable… an enigma in a pretty wrapper. THAT is my present.
I know this will upset the Prayer of Jabez people or the Prosperity Gospel folks, but the presence of God is my present. My only reward is that He will walk with me and not turn away when times get rough (see Psalm 139). When I don’t get the job I want, when a monster walks into a school in Colorado or Pennsylvania and kills sweet little girls, when my health shudders and breaks, or when financial disaster closes in on me, I have my reward — the presence of God.

I need reminded of this, especially with my wife. I need to step back and just marvel that I am with this woman, and that she wants to be with me. Also, the idea that just being with God is my reward is liberating. I don’t need to seek any other blessings or understanding, just be with God. That is enough.
Later, Patrick asks us to go for a walk.

The whole of Scripture can be read as an invitation by God to walk with Him. In one instance, God tells Abram to “walk before me.” That doesn’t mean that Abram led and God followed, not at all. It was sweeter and more wonderful than that. It was God saying, “Let me watch you walk. Walk with me and let me rejoice in your walking.” You have a Father who wants to watch you walk today. It’s okay — He loves you! And He will walk with you.

What an amazing picture of God, a God who longs to watch us walk with him, to rejoice in our walking. I don’t think I’ve had such an intimate picture of God in a long time. I needed that.