I Made This For You

Cathy was sitting on the front porch at our family cabin drinking a cup of coffee as she took in the beauty outside. She loves this place and is very grateful for it.

The cabin was built by her father (and other family members including myself) thirty years ago as a gift; which has deeper meaning and memories for us now that he has gone to be with the Lord over twelve years ago.

The cabin was made for vacations, retreats, and other forms of respite. Some have spent their honeymoons there. It has served me well for many sermons and times of meditations.

I am very happy to see our children taking their families to it and enjoying it the way it was intended... laughter and life and memories filling the air.

Cathy shared with me, as she came back inside to the kitchen table where I was sitting, just how grateful she is as she can even now see her father saying to her; "I made this for you!" many years past when we first cleared some trees on the property and poured the footings.

"I made this for you as a place for you and your family as a place for rest, relaxation, restoration, and community..."

"I made this for you far beyond some gifts that are made for you."

And then she shared with me how she saw beyond the physical structure of the porch and realized that her father had made the cabin to be a place to sit and ponder the place where he had chosen to build it. He wanted her to enjoy what he had seen and treasured about the lake and land.

 

It was more than just the cabin that he wanted her to enjoy....there was a world beyond the cabin; which really was a shelter for when this place had changed and the elements were cold or hot or windy or snowy or rainy...

And then she thought of the Lord who had literally created all that her dad had seen...

And she heard Father saying to her (deep in her spirit) "I made this for YOU!"

And she was filled with gratefulness for her dad to have built the cabin, to create a space for her to sit and ponder this place that meant so much to him. A place designed and created by a God who reveals Himself as "Father" who had made all of this for her.

“Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Revelations 4:11 KJV)