Having a Thing With God

This picture is from a few years ago. Until mission season hit, these two cute ladies and I would retreat once a year to a beautiful cabin in the mountains and sew. It's our thing. We take turns fixing meals for each other, sew our guts out, talk our tongues off or watch favorite movies, catch up with each others' lives and solve all the world's problems, and make quilts - quilts which at home, interrupted with that pesky thing we call Life, would take weeks or even months to finish. But give these three women a few uninterrupted days with a sewing machine and shared irons, and LOOK OUT. We are women with sewing machines, hear them roar.

If you stop to think about it, don't you love having shared things with certain people? Take my grandson, for instance. He's only been mine a few years, but when I first met him, we bonded over brownies, and now, cooking is our thing. We've swapped recipes ever since and enjoyed cooking or baking together whenever we get the chance, living as far away from each other as we do. My heart turned over last year when I got a text from him - twelve by then, saying, "Lulu, I think I found a recipe better than our brownies." Followed by a screen shot of his hand-written recipe. He was right. This past Thanksgiving, we also discovered that roller coasters is our thing. And what a thing it was, when we actually got to ride one of our favorites two times in a row.

I love having shared things with people - books, music, scriptures, following world events, quilting, cooking, sourdough - it doesn't seem to matter what it is, but to have a shared thing bring you together is the perfect spark to start a friendship - a relationship. True Things seem to make the things you don't have in common not seem to matter so much. At least, that's the way true Things should work.

You don't even have to have a full-blown relationship with someone to have a thing with them. The way you connect with the grocery store clerk, the mailman, a person in line - anytime you acknowledge you share a Thing with another person, you close the gap of loneliness in this cold ol' dark and dreary world. You're not quite as isolated as you were a minute ago. It's so worth looking for those things - enjoying them, and even celebrating them for a little minute.

You'll recognize this in your very best friendships and relationships, too: those you have the very most Things with are those you love the very most and enjoy spending time with more than anyone else. When you think about it, no wonder; you need to spend time together to get to all of the Things.

So I ask this not at all rhetorically: do you have a Thing with God? Because if you don't, I would really encourage you to find one. Having even one thing with Him is a complete delight.

For instance, if you have a thing for sunsets, let me ask you: where do you think you get that? From the One who does an art project in the sky each and every night, that's who.

When your heart drops or wrenches in a gorgeous piece of music, know that the Creator of music feels the same way about the music He inspired.

When you feel complete joy and exhilaration at going fast - where do you think you get that? The Creator of the universe and all things speedy. No way He doesn't feel the thrill of fast.

When you are moved to tears by something beautiful or tragic - or both - know that you get that from the One who sees the beauty and tragedy - and triumph - of every life. You get that from Him. Ask Enoch.

When you create something and feel the deep satisfaction of the creative process as well as the end product, remember: you get that from the Creator who paused after each creative period to pronounce it "good."

When no one else appreciates something you find hilarious - know that our Father has the best sense of humor in the universe. He created us, after all!

Every single eccentric thing you possess, all the Things which make you certain you are an alien on an exile planet, all of this makes better sense when we know He made us that very way - the way He is. We share His DNA - which is most definitely a Thing.

Because He is God - He is ALL of the Things. And because He is all of the Things, He craves having a Thing with each of His precious children - whom He created, nurtured, misses as He's sent them off to school - and craves being with - the way every parent craves being with their children. Father in Heaven is waiting for us to discover the Things we share with Him - the things we both enjoy - so we can have a real relationship.

One day when I was having a chat with Heavenly Father (aka praying), I said something that I swear felt like an inside joke about the unique weirdness that is me. I ruefully, wryly chuckled to myself. Right in the prayer. Because that's a Thing Father and I have talked about often - how hard it must be for Him to teach me because of that particular weirdness He baked in right along with my good stuff, I fancy I sort of felt Him chuckle, right along with me. Because we've discussed Him helping me in spite of the weakness, it's kind of like we have a Thing there. I've actually said in prayers, when asking Him to short circuit and send help in spite of me, "You know you You're dealing with, Sir." Because seriously, if He doesn't - the Being who created me - who does? It's our Thing - how is Father going to work around my weaknesses to send me the help He always promises to send when I'm trying? Now that is one of the mysteries.

The more joy and beauty I discover - even the more heartache and homesickness I feel - every time I am hard at work processing this strange fallen planet I live on, trying to make sense of it, and what am I even doing here? - I feel the One who created me, sent me, and tailored the private curriculum of my life - encouraged that I'm on the brink of finding yet another Thing in common with Him. He waits and hopes that I've discovered another place where He can enter my story, and be a part of it. Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ are in "relentless pursuit of you" - because Their intent is to bring you home. (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/04/45kearon?lang=eng)

I ask again - and not rhetorically: do you have a Thing with God? Because if you don't, I would really encourage you to find one. As I said, having just one Thing with Him is a complete delight. Having many Things is a relationship. Having all of the Things? That's the most magnificent relationship worth nurturing that you will ever have.

My life has been so much richer with Him in it, and the more Things we have, the more I feel His relentless pursuit of me. Feeling Someone so mighty and grand loving you like that changes everything.