Loveless ~ and Love

"written with the finger of God"

Exodus 31:18

I read something so beautiful today.  It was inspirational and heart-warming, and it reminded me of just how much God loves me.

But it wasn't in the Bible.

It wasn't even in a devotional.

It was in a cookbook.

I'll back up a little....

I was reading through one of my cookbooks today, looking for an interesting recipe or two to try in the near future.  And the book I chose was one that my mother-in-law gave me a few years ago, from a restaurant outside Nashville.

The restaurant is called The Loveless Cafe, and they're famous for Southern Country Cooking.  We were fortunate enough to have a chance to visit in 2010, and let me tell you, I am ruined for fried chicken now.  The Colonel just ain't doin' it for me anymore.  The bad news is, Loveless doesn't deliver.   Well, not their fried chicken, they don't. 

The other winner for me there was the strawberry jam.  It is ~ there's no other way to put it ~ perfect. Just the right amount of sweetness, just the right texture for spreading (not too lumpy, not too thin). Happily, that, they'll deliver.  Well, ship, really.

photo credit:  The Loveless Cafe.  mmmm..... gonna get me a spoonful right now...

But here's what happened:  I was reading the author's acknowledgements in the beginning of the book, and he wrote the following line: "Like many writers, I tend to write with particular readers in mind ~ readers who motivate me to do my best."

I never thought about it before, but I realized that as a writer, I do that.  I want to write in a way that appeals to the "-est" reader ~ the neediest, the smartest, the simplest... the one who needs the most encouragement, the one who needs the reminder, the one who needs the challenge.  That's who I hope I'm reaching, whether it's here or in another endeavor.  I may not know who that person is, but I'm writing for them.  I'm thinking about them.

And then I excitedly realized that's how the Lord must feel about His Word.  So many different books, each appealing to a different sort of person.  Some simple, some challenging, some historic, some poetic.  And because He knows each and every one of us ~ those who live now, those who came before, and those who are yet to be born ~ He knew how each of us would react to different books, and maybe even different parts in those books.

Don't you just love the idea of Him thinking of you?  Writing for you?  Crafting and planning and perfecting His Words, for your growth and encouragement and learning?  What a beautiful sense of joy it brings to feel that known, and be that loved!

~ "Yes, He loves the people;

  All His saints are in Your hand;

They sit down at Your feet;

   Everyone receives Your words." ~

Deuteronomy 33:3

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