The Extravagant Love of God

This summer when I was in Germany I had a dream one of the first nights I was there. I don’t dream very often, so when I do I pay attention. In my dream Papa God was running towards me with His arms outstretched to greet me. He wore a long coat of many colors, like Joseph, with a rainbow of colors, glistening and gorgeous. As He wrapped His arms around me, the long, colorful robe came onto me. I admired the length of it on myself and smiled at Papa—still wearing the robe Himself. Then He lovingly placed some leather sandals on my feet, a thick wreath of colorful flowers on my head, and a red ribbon sash over one shoulder, like I had won a beauty pageant. He took an opal ring off His finger and put it on mine, with the biggest, most beautiful opal, full of fire and sparkle. I felt overcome by Papa’s love for me to give me such gifts. He kissed me on the head and said, “My child, I will give you everything you need, when you need it.”

Papa God placed a colorful wreath of flowers on my head.

When I awoke I still felt God’s loving presence, sweet and thick around me. I quickly wrote down every detail of the dream and thought about the verse, “God gives to His beloved in sleep.” On the flight to Germany I had read “Dream Language” a book by James Goll  about how God gives His people revelation and encounters with Him, even in our sleep, and we should be ready and even expecting to receive—and ready to write them down so we don’t forget them. In his book he cites the many stories in the Bible of God giving revelations to people in their dreams. After I wrote down my dream, I prayed and asked Papa to give me the full meaning of it.

A few days later, on August 31, 2012, I was privileged to attend a Global Legacy Conference put on by Bethel Church of Redding, California and hosted in Germany by the Duisburg Church of Christ (or as they say in Germany: Cristus-Gemeinde Duisburg) and translated by Pastor Martin Spreer. The speaker was Paul Manwaring from Bethel. I bought Paul’s newest book (It is excellent!) “What on Earth is Glory?” and asked him to sign it inside. As I greeted him I said, “I’m from Washington State—here in Germany for two weeks.” He laughed and said, “Wow! You traveled a long way to come and hear me speak!” Hahaha!

Paul spoke on the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. He said this is one of the most important texts of the whole Bible and the story should be renamed, “The Extravagant Father.” I did not put it together until he said it—this is my dream! I was like the son returning home AND the older son too. These verses have become the some of the most precious Bible verses to me because I came to realize My Papa loves me like that—with an extravagant love! Tears dropped on the pages of my Amplified Bible as the verses spoke straight to me.

Papa says…

“You are always with Me and all that is Mine is yours. You are My heir, My darling child. I have given you My robe of righteousness and you are perfectly sinless to Me and oh SO beautiful! I give you freedom from the law of sin and death to enjoy My love and abundant life now and forever. It is time to make merry, play music, dance, revel and be happy and rejoice in all I give to you! I love you dearly, My child.”

Forever a Child

If heaven was giving out awards, I think I would be in the running for winning the award for “Biggest Kid”. After all, I’m five feet eight inches tall—that is a pretty big kid! Some of my best friends are children. I don’t have very many peers that like to goof off as much as I do—they are probably embarrassed to be seen with me! I like to load up my car with kids and go to the beach, go swim at the pool, go folk dancing, or go to the park. I turn the radio up nice and loud and sing at the top of my vocal capacity. I don’t wanna get a speeding ticket, but I really like to drive fast. What I do is “hug the turns” whenever possible and as fast as possible (while keeping safe, of course). It is so fun to make the kids squeal! As a result of hanging out with kids a lot, I get invited to their birthday parties. My favorite one so far was Angelina’s princess party. I am pictured here, dressed as a princess, surrounded by my little friends. I told you I was the biggest kid!

One way I am childlike is that I like to have fun. If you ask me what one of my goals is, I will probably say, “To have fun!” To be funloving is a character quality I admire and hope to develop more and more. I like to goof off with kids because they really know how to have fun. When they go to the beach or the park, kids don’t think about their list of things to do or how much money they have in the bank or about their next appointment—they just have fun. My youngest child, Peter, and his friend, Michel and I went shopping one day and I was having a good time with them skipping in the parking lot, telling jokes, and looking at stuff to buy. Michel paid me a high compliment that day. He said, “You know Jenna, you are more like a kid than a mom!” I said, “THANK YOU VERY MUCH!”

I like to make people laugh. Laughing is SO fun and it is contagious too. One of my favorite scenes from a Disney movie is the one in Mary Poppins where they all start singing “I love to laugh—hahaha!” and they all float up to the ceiling. Wouldn’t that be fun?! Children laugh on an average of 400 times per day! Adults laugh like about 15 times a day. Whew--what a difference! I think I’d rather be a kid, wouldn’t you? If you listen carefully, children call adults “dolts”. So that’s what I’ve started calling them too. Hahaha! I’d rather be a kid than a dolt!

Another way I’m like a kid, is I love to sing silly songs. It is common for me to break out in song and the silly ones are my favorites. (With a last name of Silliman, I can’t be too serious, now can I?) For some examples, you might know this song: “I know an old lady who swallowed a fly…I don’t know why she swallowed a fly; I guess she’ll die!” Do you know this one? “I had a little sister; her name was sister Sue, we put her in the bathtub to see what she would do. She drank up all the water, she ate a bar of soap, she tried to eat the bathtub, but it wouldn’t fit down her throat!” Here’s another favorite: “If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, oh what a rain it would be! I’d stand outside with my mouth open wide, singin’ ah ah, ah ah ah, ah ah!”

Don’t you love the way children are full of wonder and amazement at the world? They chase butterflies, blow dandelion seeds and watch them float on the air, and they love to run and jump and dance around. I love to go swimming with kids and play games in the water. That’s a blast. I like the way kids will get enthusiastic about things too. Why do we have to be so dang reserved all the time? To be childlike is to be more trusting and loving and spontaneous and honest. I teach a children’s dance class and my students never cease to amaze me at how loving they are. They run over and hug me and tell me they love me. They skip and frolic around with carefree abandon. I want to be more like that. Yesterday one little girl told me, “I like your colorful blouse, but I don’t think it matches your twirly skirt very well.” Hahaha! That made me laugh! Kids are so honest. They tell you when they like something and when they don’t.

When I was a girl I was often scolded for daydreaming. My hands would slow down at the task at hand—such as washing dishes, folding laundry, or doing a math assignment. Instead I would stare off into the distance, lost in my dream world. I wrote creative stories about make believe lands and enjoyed reading and daydreaming about what it would be like to be one of the characters in the book. Even now, at age 54, I like to dream. You’d think I would have grown out of it by now, wouldn’t you? No, I like to dream about all the possibilities in life, such as where I’d like to travel and what I’d like to do. The Bible says, “Nothing is impossible with God.” We have an unlimited God and so we need not limit ourselves or our lives either.

As long as I am faithful and responsible and dependable and all those grown-up things, I don’t see anything wrong with being like a kid. In fact, the Lord Jesus said, “Be as a little child to enter My kingdom.” Now I have a new dream. I can picture the Lord saying, “Here’s your award, Princess Jenna.” Jesus walks towards me in a trailing purple robe and in His hands is a golden crown all sparkling with diamonds and jewels of different colors and He places it upon my head and says, “Good job on being childlike! Well done—you have entered into My joy everlasting!”