My wife Terri and I will be celebrating our 30th anniversary of wedded bliss in a few weeks! This means it is a great time to take a stroll down memory lane and reminisce a bit about our beginnings! We had been going out pretty seriously for about 6 months, and while I enjoyed taking girls out and getting to know them better by spending some quality time together, I believed that special kisses should be saved for very special girls! It was quickly becoming quite clear to me that Terri was getting to be to me the most special of them all!
It was February 1982 and I still had not made my move to kiss her yet- but oh how I wanted to! We were in college at the time, and we both had gotten quite used to our nightly walks where we would share with one another about all that was going on in our lives and even began to hint and explore about our future hopes and dreams as a couple! Even now I clearly recall how Terri- although a quiet and shy girl by nature- would just bubble over with contagious excitement whenever she would talk to me. She was absolutely adorable!
I’ll never forget one particular rainy night- when we were out huddled together in the midst of a winter shower- when all of a sudden in a total spontaneous moment I said to her, “It’s time,” and then proceeded to plant the big one upon her lips that set off fireworks in our souls. I wanted her to know that she was the love of my life and the apple of my eye! I wanted her to know how much she meant to me. By the look in her eye after the smooch- I would dare to say that my mission was accomplished!
Did you know that the word used in the Bible when it comes to how we humans should worship and relate and respond to God is the word we use to describe a kiss? The Greek word is “proskuneo” and it literally means to “step towards with the intention to kiss.” When was the last time you were so grateful for the blessings that you were discovering in your life that all you wanted to do was give God a great big kiss? Our relationship with God must go beyond mere formalities. We are not business partners so a handshake is not merely enough! And there is nothing worse than a union with the Lord that settles to be filled with nothing more than menial mechanical meaningless motions! I believe God wants us to get much closer to him than we too often settle for!
Unfortunately in the Bible- the most passionate kiss that Jesus ever got on this earth was from Judas! The scripture tells us that Judas didn’t just give Jesus a little peck on the cheek! But while it looked like true devotion on the outside- there could not have been a more selfish act concocted from the inside. Judas was kissing off God to get his own way! Too often we are no better only kissing up to the Lord when we need something and then nowhere to be found when he needs us!
I believe that the best thing we can do to show our appreciation for all the wonderful undeserved gifts that we receive during any given day- is to make a daily date with God! We need to engage with him fully and go out for a walk and at just the right time- step forward to give him a kiss! Not just some obligatory gesture mind you, but a kiss that communicates a true love and a genuine passion and a desire for the communion to just get stronger every day!
This is why I guess that the most important ingredient in life is love. To accomplish even good things without love driving the vehicle is to make the journey less than what it should and could be. There is nothing worse than to sing a love song like you are reciting a grocery list. I have witnessed way too many solos in church where the mouths might be proclaiming the right words to God, but the heart is out on hiatus! Men and women who are doing nothing more than just reading lyrics with no intentions of puckering up for God! When we appreciate what we have and we take care of those we have been given and we use our lives as a gift to be shared rather than a treasure that gets hoarded away-we kiss God rather than just kiss him off! Our lives should be a continuous string of “WOW” moments. Do you feel about God the way that he feels about you? Do you know that it is only when you know you are loved that you can fully become free to begin loving others? And why waste time looking for love in all the wrong places and in all the wrong faces when all you have to do to look up to begin to understand how crazy about you God really is?
So I think it is time to grab your blistex and give your mouth a shot of breath spray and go crazy! Make sure that God’s kiss is on your list as one of the best blessings this life can offer. Step forward and “proskuneo…”and discover the power in the pucker of God! Instead of telling him to kiss of- why not give him the biggest kiss you ever shared and then stand back and watch the fireworks begin! Life is really nothing more than a sacred romance! Do not reduce it to ritual and routine. Now go and kiss and tell!!!
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Congratulations Rudy & Terri!
Thanks for sharing Rudy! I never knew this and read part of your blog to our life group last night because we have been reading the book Crazy Love and the chapter we were discussing was on intimacy with God and being in love with Him. It was a different kind of relevation to think about God wanting to be as intimate as a kiss with us and for us to respond to this kind of intimacy and not push him away.