The New Testament talks about the attributes of God. Kind, gentle, patient, loving, caring, forgiving, and the list goes on, and on. But how do the writers of those books know this?

They were in Jesus's presence. He demonstrated these attributes to them through the way He lived. They had knowledge of these attributes because they experienced them.

When people experience my presence, what attributes do they see? Would they call me patient? kind? gentle? loving? I dont know, but i doubt it. Maybe shy, or quiet, but probably not patient, loving, or gentle. If I'm lucky they'd call me a servant. Maybe.

Beaches

The beach can be a scary place. You start smelling it a few miles before you can see it. You start anticipating it, feeling it in the air, tasting it, smelling it. Your expectations rise, you start getting excited, and then you arrive and discover waves crashing as far as the eye can see and suddenly your anticipation disappears and you think "I can't go in there! Its too dangerous! Too big! Too deep!" may even "too cold!". And so instead of heading straight for the water you get near it, and then make a right turn, and start walking along the beach looking for a safe place to wade in.

And I wonder if we do this in our relationship with God. We start sensing him, feeling him, getting drawn to him. We go racing towards Him and then we see him and say "WAIT! I cant do this! What if He is cold? Or too big? Or if I find myself in over my head? I can't jump in, i don't know how to swim!" So instead we make a right turn. And for a while we keep our eyes on God, looking for a safe place to wade in. We still sense him, smell him, but we are afraid. Then after a while we lose sight of Him and start to wonder why there is so much sand, why this desert just keeps going and going and going? And now we don't see the big, deep, amazing ocean just to our left, but all we see is sand, sand, and more sand. When all we have to do, is just look up and focus on God again, and go for a swim.

I know I am guilty of this. I get excited, amazed, left in speechless wonder and awe of Him, then a few days or weeks later find myself wondering where all this freaking sand came from. Then I "rediscover" Him and amamazed yet again. I don't know what I'm afraid of, or if im just so set in my ways that its taking me a while of walking down the beach, but I know I'll be swimming soon. I hope everyone everyone else can go swimming soon too.