Murray Meditations: Oregon Memories

The world is a book, and those who do not travel see only a page. 

St. Augustine

Today, I sit looking out at the crashing waves of the Oregon coast. I have traveled to this place to say goodbye to my father and possibly find some small key to unlock the mystery of this man. During his retirement years, he lived on this rugged coast and roamed up and down the beaches in a mad search for agates. It was here that he was his truest self, or maybe just the self that I loved the most. From this ocean view, all else was stripped away, and I fell in love with this complex man I called "dad". His joy in living was most evident here and my joy was born in knowing him. Maybe for the first time I was truly able to see him. Or maybe for the first time, I was able to see him from  grown up eyes. On this one year anniversary of his death, here in the misty, windswept coast that he loved so much, I say a loving "goodbye"  and feel at peace with the man he was and is today.

Photography by S. Wightman

It is interesting that this exploration and journey to know my earthly father parallels my journey and exploration to know my heavenly Father. A coincidence? I think not! How precise of God to direct me, at this moment in time, to Andrew Murray's thoughts on our childlike relationship to God, which is the true essence of our spiritual relationship with Him.  As I meditate on what it means to fall in love with our Father God, I can't help but turn to my father relationship and wonder how my experiences here on earth inform my understanding of our heavenly Father.

Murray's writings are filled with statements that paint a picture of the believer's childlike love and dependence upon our heavenly father. I can almost hear his voice as I read. His words a soulful pleading, longing for his readers to understand at a heart level the joy of living in a place centered and grounded in a childlike love and dependence on the Father. But the power and beauty of this exhortation is that Murray knows it is not accomplished from our own strength. Only as we live in childlike dependence on the Spirit can we live in childlike dependence on the Father.

Romans 8:14 

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.  

Spirit of the living God, I surrender my heart and life to you today. Guide me into the holy place of knowing You, and thus knowing the heart of my Heavenly Father. I plead with You to fill me with Your fruit, so that other's may see and know You through me.

Galatians 4:4-7

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts the Spirit who calls out, Abba, Father. You are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

He who gives himself to be led by the Spirit in his life will be led by Him in his prayers, too. And he will find that Fatherlike giving is the divine response to childlike living. A Murray