There is a Secret Place my husband David and I retreat to every year during the fall colors of October, setting aside a weekend to honor another wedding anniversary God has so abundantly blessed us with.
Our Secret Place has a front row seat to this beautiful lake, a living portrait of waves slow dancing to its own music, a private reception of splashing and swimming to the sandy shores like young love on their honeymoon.
The hours David and I spend reflecting together the love we share so deeply rooted in our hearts, fully alive because of the well in God we draw from.
David and I celebrate the pearls in our marriage, as to create such a pearl of great price are those irritant’s that force you to your knees in surrender to God; the author who scripts the pages of true love.
It’s during this getaway a candle burns as a remembrance of the continual love that shines through the eyes of two people who can’t see one without the other.
Our weekend is a patchwork quilt of small moments of just “the two of us” stitched together with memory threads by the fire over coffee and a new book we read every anniversary as an investment into our lives as husband and wife.
Our Secret Place is a treasure chest we open every October to hold close and remember the gifts of time already shared together, adding another weekend of Newlywed love and laughter until those anniversary leaves begin to fall again next year.
Just as young love desires a Secret Place to express itself, God desires that Secret Place to share as just “the two of us.”
Pondering the heart of God in the Garden he masterfully created in the beginning, eyes are blind and inadequate to imagine the grandeur and beauty of such a Secret Place he designed to share such intimate time with us. Even though the Garden closed its gates forever due to our fall, God still longs to inhabit that Secret Place of our heart.
Walking with God the paths of this Secret Place, I hear a symphony of birds singing in unison while being led to the hidden places for two.
Waters lapping the rocks during its swim downstream echoes as a rain forest through the trees while walking the fields of wild flowers blooming for our amazement.
God’s Secret Place longs to overwhelm our hearts in His love. Sitting together at this intimate spot for two, one might be nervous for an appropriate response for Him.
But do not fear:
“We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love he has for us. God is love!….” 1 John 4:16 The Passion Translation (TPT)
With God encompassing all love, communicating our love in return could reflect itself through many mirrors as in “The Five Love Languages”, Written by Gary Chapman. While Mr. Chapman’s book is written for persons communicating love to one another, since GOD IS LOVE, surely he responds though the five love languages of “words of affirmation, gifts, meaningful touch, acts of service and quality time”.
I imagine the heart of God swelling when we speak our WORDS OF AFFIRMATION to Him as spoken in Psalm 22:10 TPT:
“Since the day I was born, I’ve been placed in your custody. You’ve cradled me throughout my days. I’ve trusted in you and you’ve always been my God.”
Surely God joyfully receives the GIFTS of our praises as in Psalm 69:31 (TPT):
“For I know, Yahweh, that my praises mean more to you
than all my gifts and sacrifices.”
We express MEANINGFUL TOUCH to God in our prayers:
“Protect me from harm; keep an eye on me like you would a child reflected in the twinkling of your eye. Yes, hide me within the shelter of your embrace, under your outstretched wings. Psalm 17:8
Our ACTS OF SERVICE speak loudly to the ears of God when we pray:
“Be enthusiastic to serve the Lord, keeping your passion toward him boiling hot! Radiate with the glow of the Holy Spirit and let him fill you with excitement as you serve him.”
Romans 12:11 (TPT)
And more than anything, our QUALITY TIME delights a loving God as spoken in James 4:8 (TPT):
“Move your heart closer and closer to God, and he will come even closer to you….”
God also delights in our time when we:
….wake the dawn with my song.
9 I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.
I will sing your praises among the nations.
10 For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Psalm 57:9-10 (NLT)
God desires to share that Secret Place of your heart.
God desires that moment in your Secret Place as “just the two of us”.
May we without hesitation make room for Him in our Secret Place.
May we like young newlywed’s run barefoot through the wild fields of love to that Secret Place to be with our God.
