The Greatest Love Story

   I feel like it's been a while since I last wrote a blog.  A lot has been happening lately.  God is continuing to heal certain areas of my life that I thought would never be possible.
   One thing He has been showing me is that He not only cares about my needs but my wants as well.  He is a deeply personal God.  I saw that my account here was running low (we take money out each week to buy lunch and necessities, shampoo, coffee, etc..).  I didn't want to ask my parents for more money so I just prayed and trusted that God would somehow take care of it.  In a week and a half, I got over $100 in the mail!  God is good!  Then my friend let me listen to her cd (the new Casting Crowns cd) and I fell in love with it, but again, I knew I didn't have the money at the time to buy it.  Plus we only go to the Christian book store every few weeks.  So I was like, Ok, God, if you wanted me to have it right now, you'd give it to me.  If not, I'll just wait."  That weekend my grandma and I were chatting and she said, "I have this cd...I don't know if you want it or not..."  And it was THE cd!  So cool.  I'm not saying I'll hope for a million dollars and God will give it to me.  He's not going to give me everything I want.  I'm just taken aback by God's presence.  God's LOVE.
   Which brings me to the point of my blog and title for it.  The greatest love story.  God is captivated by His people. He's madly in love with us.  We just finished Easter week.  There is no greater love than God sending His sinless Son to die the most brutal, gruesome, shaming death for sinful people like you and me.  What a sobering week it was.  Going to "Stations fo the Cross" at Bayside Church...walking through each room depicting a play-by-play of the night Jesus was crucified..feeling the crown of thorns, the whips, the cat-of-nine-tails.  Hearing the sound of nails being hammered into a cross - because of my sin.  Powerful.  What hit me the most was a station that talked about the soldiers stripping Jusus of His clothes.  The point of this "room" was to tell us that because Jesus hung naked on a cross, He can relate to my own shame.  This particular room had little strips of linen that people could take as a reminder.  Mine is in my room, in plain sight to see every day. I don't have to carry my shame anymore. It's already been taken care of. Another night we went to a concert.  Another night we watched The Passion of The Christ, likely to be the most accurate portrayal of what happened that night and at the same time, not even close to how gruesome it actually was...AND THEN SUNDAY!....because of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, we are able to be made whole.  The greatest love story.
  So I didn't really share a lot about how I'm doing.  Well, in a way I did because all of this I'm still processing and am in awe of.  I can't say it enough, God is doing CRAZY AWESOME things here.  He is making me whole and bringing be back to life.  I haven't felt this way in so long!
   I have a feeling good things are going to happen this month.  We have a lot of events on our calendar and I'm becoming more liberated each day.  I'll keep ya'll posted.

Love, Sarah