Daughter of the King - Summer Wishes

Chapter Five

We stood before a large, red brick building with plants crawling all over it. It was guarded by a rusted iron gate, which was slightly ajar.

"Come on in," Sat beckoned me. I grasped her open hand, and we made our way through the gate and into the courtyard. Then, we went right through the door of the building.

Just then, the air seemed to change.

There were only a few things in this world that made me feel on top of the world. One was music, and the other was this feeling.

Have you ever been in the presence of the King? So lost in worship that it wasn't just your mouth singing, but every bit of your being was being enveloped in God's presence?

Honestly, I could stay there forever. I would give anything to feel that way until the end of time. We had barely gotten into the building when I recognized the song playing: "Touch of Heaven" by Hillsong.

The melody seemed to sweep me off my feet even before I could walk further into the room. Sat and I quietly went to a corner of the room to join the other worshippers for the next best 45 minutes of my life.

It felt good to lay aside the trillion things swirling through my head and just focus on God. I was overwhelmed by His glory and wrapped in His presence. For a moment, it felt like I didn't need oxygen to survive; all I needed was God.

Like the song says: 

"How I live for the moments, 

when I'm still in Your presence, 

all noise dies down 

Lord speak to me now, 

you have all my attention, 

I would let go and listen..."

Time stopped, everything stopped suddenly. I found myself zapped into a throne room, flat on my face. There was no life in me. I lay before a throne with someone seated upon it. He was the Father of Lights.

The same moment I zapped back. Then I realized what happened. I wept, not the sad kind of weeping, but the kind you weep as you wonder, "Who am I?" That the King of all the earth would call me His child, His own, His daughter? It sounds so simple to say, but do you know what it meant to be the daughter of the King, not just any King, but the King of all Kings?

The worship session ended just then, even though I wished it wouldn't. I sat calmly and quietly, like a child, as I watched a woman with a countenance so still it could still a storm. Her gentle face held a bright smile. She spoke for what seemed like hours, but one thing she said spoke to me so deeply.

As if she had spied on my life, I knew that wasn't possible, but how else do you explain the accuracy of her words right now?

She said, "Sometimes God tears apart our pretty little lists so He can give us something better. We might not understand. Like Isaiah 55:9 says - 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.' However, Romans 8:28 assures us that 'All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose'"

I had a pretty list of my own, how I wanted this summer to go, and so far everything had come crashing down. Was that part of God's plan, as she said? And what was the "something better" that could possibly come out of this mess?

Everything I loved was snatched away from me without explanation. Well, not exactly everything, but a lot of things that mattered: my room, our vacations, my friends, even Sing Fest camp. 

This wasn't what I wanted to happen. This was so not how I planned it. What's worse is that it happened in the blink of an eye. One moment it was all fine, the next I had forgotten what it felt like to be fine.

Could God really make some meaning out of all this? To be honest, I don't know if this was all God's plan, but I wish He hadn't planned it this way

This unending internal rambling made me a little quiet on our way home the next morning, even up till I lay down to rest.