The other night I was all cozy in bed (super early) with the electric blanket cranked up.  Suddenly I realize that I’m hungry… hmm, what is a girl to do?  Fortunately, I have one of those husbands who recognizes that I’m all snug and cozy and volunteers to fix me a green smoothie.  He brings this gorgeous glass of pure energy to me.  I take a sip.  “So, what did you put in it?”  He starts rattling off a list of stuff while I take another sip.  “Did you wash the spinach?”  (cricket, cricket)

“What do you want to hear?” asks my darling man.

I knew the answer to the question before I even asked it because that last sip clearly had dirt in it.  Just a couple of days before, we purchased some spinach that looked like it was bundled in the mud.  I was only washing the leaves as I used them so the rest of the bunch was still dirty.  We use the question “what do you want to hear” a lot at our house.  The Husband loves this response because it’s guaranteed to get a smile out of me even if I want to say something like, “why on earth would you serve me muddy spinach!”  Of course, I use it too.  “Honey, did you remember to wash my running socks?”  Uh oh.

I wonder if Cain’s first response to God when asked about his brother’s whereabouts was actually something like, “What do you want to hear, God?”  Saying, “I’m not my brother’s keeper,” is basically the same thing though.  He’s trying to hide, to deflect, whatever he can do to avoid facing the truth.

“Saul, why do you persecute my people?”

“What do you want to hear, God?”

“Adam, Eve, why are you hiding?”

“What do you want to hear, God?”

“Jonah, how did you end up in the gut of that fish?”

“Um, what do you want to hear, God?”

Don’t think for a minute that God needs us to answer these questions so He will know the answers.  He already knows the answer… which is why we deflect the question.  Silly humans that we are.  We cannot hide from Him so why not confess and let the forgiveness pour over us?  If you’re wondering God’s response to the question, “What do you want to hear, God?”  It is simply, and in His most Fatherly, loving, compassionate, understanding, beautiful, comforting voice…

“The truth, Beloved.”

It still amazes me that He loves us even when we’re offering Him muddy-spinach lives.

But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.  ~ Romans 5:8 (AB)