An ancient question...

So, I'm working through this Bible Study...and today's lesson hit a mark.  We've come to a place in David's life where he's decided to do something for God.  He wants to give back, wants to honor God's faithfulness to him and his family, and upon looking around his own palace with its lush amenities it strikes him that while he has this great place to live, the Ark of the Lord's presence has spent years wandering from place to place.  With no permanent place to call "home".  So David makes this grand plan to build a resting spot for the presence of the LORD...it's with a sincere motive to honor GOD.  But, God says to David, "No...you will not build ME a home, I will build for you a home...a name for all time.  An honor far greater than what you set out to do for me."  He wanted to build David's house so that for generations to come we would all know that the One who He would send to save us all had come from the line of David.

Whoa....

David's overwhelmed response is this, "Who am I that you should bring my family THIS FAR?"  He's taken back..unable to understand what he could possibly have done to deserve such grace from God. 

"David voiced the sentiment of countless followers of God who have been startled by

His scandalous grace through the centuries."  Beth Moore

This struck a chord with me this morning.  How much I have to be graciously thankful for.  How unspeakably blessed my family is that HE should choose to bring us THIS FAR.  While our "THIS FAR" doesn't look like much to the world's standards, to me...because I know what I'd be if the road of life had taken me in a different direction...to me, we are FAR.  Far from what we'd be without the jolting wake up call of the last 11 years.  Far from what we'd be if life had served us a bounty of goodness on its platter.  Life today is GOOD only because God has brought us THIS FAR through some pretty rough terrain...and we've lived to proclaim it's only truly because of HIS gracious goodness to us.  It's only because HE soothes the pain and provides for the needs.  Because HE's a better daddy than one I could have picked.  Because HE knows better than I do how to stand strong in the face of unanswered questions. 

We are THIS FAR because there's a Father in heaven looking down with some enourmous amount of patience who daily lifts me off my bottom and reminds me HE is in control.  I can list a dozen things my human self would like to ask that He fix or provide, but that list is nothing but dust compared to what I have instead. 

"God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to His eyes...that's why I'm thanking you, God, all over the world.  That's why I'm singing songs that rhyme your name"  Psalm 18:24 & 49 (The Message)

God's plan is to mark our lives with His glory....He wants to take us THIS FAR--so far, in fact that there is no explanation but that it HAS to be God, because on our own we would wilt and curl up in the fetal position.