HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I am currently reading a book call The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan.  I have only read the first few chapters, but it has given me so much to think about already.  I am learning in my reading that Jesus is my true rest!  In the last few days of 2013 I was reading this book and a section of chapter 4 really captured my heart.  It was so fitting as we are beginning a new year.  The author from The Rest of God quotes a section from the book Prince Caspian, part of C.S. Lewis's Narnia Chronicles.  The children Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy all find themselves in Narnia after a long absence.  Aslan, the great king and lion, is nowhere to be seen.  Lucy aches and longs to see him.  One night she wakes to a stirring in the forest, and to a voice calling her.  While her siblings were still asleep, she ventures forth through the woods and into a clearing.  Here's what happens:

"A circle of grass, smooth as a lawn, met her eyes, with dark trees dancing all round it.  And then -- oh joy!  For he was there: the huge Lion, shining white in the moonlight, with his huge black shadow underneath him.

But for the movement of his tail he might have been a stone lion, but Lucy never thought of that.  She never stopped to think whether he was a friendly lion or not.  She rushed to him.  She felt her heart would burst if she lost a moment.  And the next thing she knew was that she was kissing him and putting her arms as far round his neck as she could and burying her face in the beautiful rich silkiness of his mane.

"Aslan, Aslan. Dear Aslan," sobbed Lucy.  "At last."

The great beast rolled over on his side so that Lucy fell, half sitting and half lying between his front paws.  He bent forward and just touched her nose with his tongue.  His warm breath came all round her.  She gazed up into the large wise face. 

"Welcome, child," he said.

"Aslan," said Lucy, "you're bigger."

"That is because you are older, little one," answered he.

"Not because you are?"

"I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.""

Lion at the Oregon Zoo

Every time I have read this section the past few days it almost brings me to tears.  The author of The Rest of God stated in his book, after quoting C.S Lewis, "That's a perfect description of those who train themselves in God's goodness and sovereignty: every year you grow, you find him bigger."  I desire to have a heart that aches, longs and thirsts for Jesus!  And when I see Jesus I want my heart to burst for him!  Each and every year I want to "find him bigger" as I grow in Him.  I pray that I find Jesus bigger this year and each year that follows.

My prayer this year is that as I seek to know him with all my heart, I will realize that he is all I've ever wanted and all I've ever needed.  I also pray that as I know Christ more, that I will desire to be in his presence more.  "One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and seek him in his temple." (Psalm 27:4)

Will you join me in seeking Christ, desiring to know Him, saturating your mind and hearts in His truth, sitting in His presences and allowing Him to transform your life?