When God Comes to Town
By Sister DeAnna Pruitte
Friend
When a friend comes to visit, you clean a certain way. You might just straighten a few things up to make them comfortable, or to make room for them. But they know you, you know them, and you’re not really trying to impress them. It’s more about making them comfortable in your house.
Parent
When a parent comes to visit, you clean a little differently. You know, no matter what, your parent is always going to have something to say. Nothing will ever be perfect for them. So you tidy up a certain way so they don’t say anything to you. In essence, you try to please them to a certain degree. But this is because of the relationship that you have with your parents. They can tell you certain things because they are your parents.
Dignitary
When a dignitary comes to your house, it is totally different. Think of the president or director of your company. You clean a certain way because you don’t want their opinion of you to change. For example:
- They thought enough of you to come over. They saw something in you and wanted to get to know you better.
- You may buy new things and you will do a deeper cleaning to make them feel comfortable, to impress them, or to maintain the positive opinion they already have of you.
- You don’t want them to be disgusted, grossed out, or pity you for what you don’t have (i.e. you don’t want them to see the holes in your couch, or the stains on the carpet, the grease stains on the wall, ring around the toilet, etc.).
- You may even invite other friends over to help you clean to ensure you don’t miss anything and can get it all done in time.
God as our Friend
It’s the same way with God. When you first invite God into your heart, you clean a certain way. You may repent everyday over the smallest things because you don’t want to disappoint Him and you don’t want Him to change His high opinion of you. After all, He chose YOU! He saw something in you that He liked enough to come visit you. He wanted to get to know you better. So you may clean up your house a little differently, start doing things you’ve never done before, quit doing things you know He wouldn’t like. So He can say, “I like what you’ve done with the place. I see how you arranged this over here, I see how you cleaned this area here, look what you’ve done with the things I’ve blessed you with. I’m pleased, I think I’ll stay a little longer.”
God as our Parent
Soon, when we continue to make the place comfortable for Him, our relationship changes and we now call Him “Abba or father”. Now that He is our parent, He can tell us some things that we wouldn’t normally take from a stranger. He can correct us in places we wouldn’t be able to understand before. He can say things like, “I see what you did there, let try something different, like go and apologize and let’s work on saying that a little nicer,” or “Let’s work on your temper now,”or “I think you can use a little bit more prayer over here and maybe switch it out with what you’re currently doing with the T.V.”
And what better, than when He becomes our friends. Now, we don’t have to do a deep cleaning every day. We don’t have to repent every time we forget to say our grace. Now we know Him so well, and our relationship is so strong, we can anticipate “That’s not a thought that belongs in my mind” and can cast it out immediately. We know Him so well now, we know what’s pleasing to Him. We only have to do some straightening up because now we know Him and He knows us. You know His opinion of you is not going to change: For I know the thoughts I have towards you saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to bring you to an expected end (Jer 29.11). You now make it comfortable for Him, because now He can dwell with us, instead of just coming over to visit (visitation versus inhabitation).