Selena Gomez and Solomon?

Last night I had the joy of taking my tweener daughter and her tweener friend to see Selena Gomez in concert. Sitting there watching my 10-year old scream and dance and sing along to the lyrics was truly a memorable moment for me. I was pleased with the lyrics of so many songs as well. Such positive images promoted in "Who Says You're Not Perfect...."

Yet, as I watched the amazing wardrobe changes, the choreography, the stage setting, and all of the build up to whip the thousands of other tweeners into screaming frenzies, I wondered how much better it is in heaven.

I know. I know. You are thinking, for Pete Sake, do you have to think about heaven all the time for everything?

I just can't help it lately. Everything I see seems to prompt me of how much more glorious things are in heaven if man can construct such amazing scenes and spark emotions as a result.

In fact, this morning, after dragging my sleepy-head girl out of bed for school, I sat on the deck with my hot cup of coffee and continued my research on Solomon.

The temple he built for God's glory was better than any concert or movie set. Just reading about THE SEA (1 Kings 8) put me in awe.

Yet it was Solomon's prayer of dedication that I admired even more than the Temple's construction.

I love it when he says, "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, can not contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant's prayer and his plea for mercy, O Lord my God....Hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive....Forgive and act, deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men), so that they will fear you all the time they live in the land you gave our fathers...."

Solomon is standing in this amazing construction with a Sea, gold-plated 15 feet wide cherubims holding the ark of the Lord's convenant, walls and floors that were constructed miles away from The Temple so no sound of a hammer would violate the place for God, so much detail.....yet he realizes that if heaven could not contain God, how could this place, unless God desired to commune with man? He acknowledges how God knows each man's heart and asks God to continue to deal with each man as such.

I like that. I like Solomon in all of his riches and glory, a ruler, a king seeing God as a God of individuals, don't you? I find that amazing in fact.

I wonder as Selena Gomez or any performer who looks out from a stage to a different sea, a sea of screaming, impressionable tweens, if she can see individuals in her heart? It would be so very difficult to do, wouldn't it?

As humans we have our limits of course. We lose sight of why we are here. Why we build, create, work, interact. Let us return as Solomon reminds us in Kings and even later in Ecclesiastes to see our work outside of a relationship with God falls far short of its intent.

We are here to glorify God, to have relationship with Him, to encourage others to do the same.

I am so glad I serve a God who is the God of individuals, aren't you? Let's thank Him today for being such a God. He knows we aren't perfect and loves us just the same. Now there's an even better lyric.

For His Glory,
Gretchen