Irony is so ironic

This past week, I took a vacation - I left to go skiing for a week. When I left, I was so looking forward to 7 straight days of swooshing down the slopes - oh, it was going to be a dream come true. But, when I got there, the resort hill was closed, except for one run. Aaaarrrrggghhh!! It stayed like that until the day I left when the normally 7 hour drive home took over 10 because it was SNOWING the whole time!!!
But, it turned out for good - God always has a Way of doing that! A good friend gave me a book to read: John Eldredge's Wild at Heart. What an amazing book!! Get it! Read it! Let the words on those pages awaken your heart and inspire you to truly live. I also got to spend some time with my dad and his family.

I am forever learning how important relationships are to life; in fact, I would almost say that they are really the only thing worth living for. And, I only qualify that statement with the word 'almost' because I know that I don't know everything; otherwise, I would say that relationships are truly the only thing worth living for.
You see, it's the only thing God is doing. Everything He does is purposed to draw us deeper in relationship with Himself. And, ultimately it is that relationship with Him that is what makes anything matter at all.
Until I began to realize this, I lived an empty life. But, now, even in the toughest of circumstances, I know that everything is Good because He has promised to me (and everyone else) that He works everything out for Good. Even the struggles are wrought with meaning, now!
There is no escaping a relationship with God. Even if you don't believe, or don't pursue Him, He pursues you - He relates to you. He's created everything, He still operates the world, He is in control - no matter how much it seems otherwise.
So if God is all about relationships, wouldn't it make sense that relationships are the ultimate worth in this life? I pray that the Lord will awaken in all of our hearts the desire to pursue all of our relationships in all the fullness He has called them to be.

Merry Christmas!