The King is enthralled with your beauty!

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I know my Tutwiler girls laugh at me. They did several times last night. But I hope what I'm saying is beginning to really sink in.... because I so very badly want them to KNOW W-H-O they are.... simply because of WHOSE they are!

Our lesson last night was on our being "ambassadors" for God in His Kingdom. And how we live in a foreign land to represent Him. Represent... as in re-present (as I like to think of it).... re-present or to "present" (as in GIFT) Him again to those who don't know Him!

At the end of the lesson I reminded them of a story about me that I'd told them before. A silly one. But one that to me is really, really real... and means a lot to me (even in its craziness).

I was in the middle of teaching a Wednesday night's series at church about our INsides showing OUT. Several times I had reminded the girls (in our church group) of who we really are in God's Kingdom. His daughters. His "princesses". Our Father is The King of all kings. The Lord of all lords. Our Prince... our Knight in Shining Armor... was / is, no less than, The King's Son Himself! A girl in my class had made a gift for me for my birthday. It was a pink cowgirl hat... with ribbons and feathers dangling down the back in the girliest colors. After leaving the restaurant where she'd given it to me, I pulled off on the side of the Interstate and cried over how much it meant to me. The symbolism in that crazy looking hat! I felt I had been "crowned" by the King Himself... as if I'd been given a royal tiara that perfectly was individualized and made specifically to personally fit my head, my character, my personality. I went out of town soon after that blessing to visit an out-of-state best friend. I wore my hat along the way on the road and knew I looked silly to all those who passed. I kept thinking IF THEY ONLY KNEW what it meant!

I had to stop to get gas. I debated on rather to wear my "crown" inside the station where I'd stopped. I thought that if anyone asked that I would talk to them with an adopted accent and tell them that I am a princess from a foreign land, that my Father is The King, that I have been sent (by Him) here on a mission, to bring others back to Him as His adopted children.

I wasn't brave enough to go to that extreme. But I FELT the 'royal' blood that now poured through my veins! I felt the urgency of the mission that I'd been called to and thus sent on. I knew I now live on alien soil, only awaiting my time to go Home, but first there was work to be done!

The girls always laugh at me when I again remind them of that story. Their current 'home' (their alien place) right now consists of a prison. But just as surely as they were sent there because of something they had once done, they've now been redeemed!... bought with a price.... adopted as daughters (by the Heavenly King).... and they are now not only there because of what they've done, but also now there because of what they could do! Their mission (for the moment) is on that soil. And they are to tell others of the Prince that desires them... and the Father Who wants to adopt them... to give them a Life that they've only dreamed of yet never known.

Funny! I came home last night to my daughter packing for an out-of-town trip with a friend. You'll never guess what she held in her hand as she was leaving. A crown! A tiara! Only a fake one. But I laughed when I saw it! I thought: she is her mother's daughter! She KNOWS W-H-O she is... and feels like royalty! :)

I was thinking about the girls in my class and decided to look up the meaning of their names to see "who" I had sitting there before me on the days that we meet. I found we had:

Terry - "the harvester or reaper."

Geraldine - "mighty with a spear"

Rebecca - "servant of God"

Joy - "joy; rejoicing"

Alicia - "sweet; of nobel birth"

Leah - "weary"

Deborah - "honey bee"

Melinda - "honey"

Amber - "precious jewel; fierce"

Elaine - "light; shining light"

Gloria - "glory"

Connie - "strong willed or wise; constant; steadfastness"

Matty - "strong fighter; strong in war"

Anna - "gracious; favor or grace"

Janice - "gift from God; God is gracious"

Michelle - "like God; close to God"

Woe! True royalty sitting all around me! Me, as one, and sitting with daughters of a real live King! A REAL LIVE KING!!! In a real live Kingdom!!! 

How can I not be reminded of the verse, "The King is enthralled with your beauty, honor Him, for He is your Lord" ~ Psalm 45:11. Oh, at the beauty that sat all around me!!! Oh, at the beauty that our God sees!!
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