“Jimmy Anderson scored the winning goal in last night’s game!!!”
Jimmy came into my room first thing this morning suggesting I start today’s post this way. He’s still pretty fired up about his header in last night’s section play-in. A sweet start to the post-season for sure.
The boy also said I should mention the Psalm he read, at my suggestion. Yesterday morning when he stopped by my room to check things out in my full-length mirror. I happened to be in my favorite psalm, and I said to Jimmy – It’s a good one. You should read it. Psalm 18. (If you’ve been paying attention, I’ve urged my readers to discover it, too.) So this morning my heart skips a beat when he tells me he read it. Because this Psalm is the PICTURE of the thing I most long for – and I want my sons to understand.
Goodness. I wrote a whole book about it several years back, when I had three boys at impressionable ages and I was desperate wanting them to know the story. The Covenant Story. It’s this amazing true saga of a Covenant God who fights hard for His people, always faithful, never quitting. His fierce and furious steadfast love. It’s a story about taking oaths and spilling blood; promises made and promises broken. And this God fights to the death for the people He loves.
So this past summer I pulled out the story in its three-ring binder and I read it again with neighbors. They loved it, like I do. And by summer’s end this God-dream was taking shape. It’s not the first time, but this time was different. You should publish this book. Yes, I know. He gave it to me so I could share it. And I’m all in – except I don’t know where to begin. So I pray, God I trust you. This prayer I’ve prayed sincerely a thousand times.
Just this week riding somewhere in the car I thought it again. I wish the book was finished. For Felipe and Jimmy. I wish they could read the story and see the pictures and know this God who FIGHTS for them.
If it was just for me – for my own glory – I’d let it rest. Truth be told, it might not be worth it. All the stress and struggle just to get my name in print. But this story’s not mine, it’s HIS. A half dozen or so years ago when I was writing it down, every day sitting there at my keyboard while He’d give me the words. And I knew it was Him. Not me.
God, I trust you. This is the crux of the Covenant Story. He does for us what we can’t do for ourselves.
So last night Jimmy scores the game-winning goal. And this morning he wakes up early with two things on his mind. A win. And a Psalm. And the way he says it I think maybe he gets it.
This God who fights is fighting for him.
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