Do you believe that God knows you and loves you as an individual? Not just as one of millions of people on the earth that He loves as a people, but as His individual, beloved child that He delights in? Our God is a god that pursues nations, and cities, and families, and also individual hearts.
That’s a hard truth for me to believe sometimes. Sometimes I forgot that I’m chosen by God. My life feels disoriented when I forget that God is after my individual heart. Sometimes I think I’m just one of the people in the crowd and not one that Jesus would have gone after. Boy is that wrong. We are chosen and seen and loved and God loves to remind us every chance that He gets.
On Sunday night my squad arrived in Antigua, Guatemala where we spent one night all together in a hostel for some cultural training before our teams all went our seperate ways. The hostel is run by some amazing people that mostly host Adventures squads and it is beautiful. If you sit up on the roof you are hit with a beautiful view of surrounding volcanoes.
All the volcanos are dormant except for one; a volcano named Fuego. We were told that it’s been a bit active and so we wanted to see it errupt. A big group of us were just standing on the roof, under the clearest sky, praying to see it errupt.
We saw a couple little puffs but we wanted to see more. All of the sudden I see a stream of lava shoot out and spew over the very top of the volcano. We errupt in cheers and about a half a second after the lava started a BOLD shooting star shot down from the sky just to the left of the top of the volcano. It was surreal. Everyone literally went crazy. It was just a moment. It probably lasted no more than 3 seconds but I felt giddy like a little kid. I was on a roof in Gutalemala watching a shooting star fall at the same time a volcano is errupting. Like what?!?! No one could believe that we got to see it happen! The excitement on the roof was palpable.
God didn’t have to show us that but He did.
God made that moment for us specifically. He is so fricken powerful. It’s funny because our entire group was BLOWN away by how cool it was, but I imagine God just giggling, watching us experience the moment. I imagine Him smiling at us but saying; “do they think that’s all I can do? They haven’t seen anything yet, there is so much MORE.”
Right after it happened my friend Rachel said, “we think that a shooting star over an errupting volcano is amazing, but God literally has the power to drop all the stars out of the sky if He wanted to.” Wow. When I let that thought sink in it changes things.
“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” – Psalm 147:4
“And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” -Matthew 10:30
He’s named every star in the sky and knows every single hair on our heads, wow.
I can tell you all about what I saw but the only humans in the whole history of mankind that will ever get to experience that moment are me and the friends who were with me. Even among the friends who also saw the simultaneous shooting star and volcano eruption, none of them experienced the moment in the exact same way that I did. That moment was for me, from God.
Maybe there is no volcano outside of your window right now. I hope that one day you get to experience a volcano outside of your window, it’s pretty cool honestly. God is in the moments though. Right exactly where you are now, God desires to make Himself known. God will not hesitant to sweep you off your feet with His power if you ask Him to show you.
All we really get is the exact moment that we are in at any given time. I pray that I am aware of Gods presence in every single one. Thanks God for showing me beautiful things just because You love me. My prayer for me and you this week is that He would show you that He loves you individually and that He would make a moment to let Himself be known just to you.
A volcano errupting AND a shooting star……how incredible! Courtney, your reflections are filled with such joy and wisdom. So excited for how the Lord is working in your heart! Keep writing!
Thank you Megan, that means a lot!!