He stoops down.

"Jesus,
Here I am your favorite one
What are You thinking, what are You feeling?
I have to know
For I, I’m after Your heart
I'm after Your heart
I am after You
And I'll crown You with my love."
- Misty Edwards (Favorite One)

As a youngster I was a thoroughly "girly" girl. I loved pink and purple, playing dress-up and house. I experiemented in my mother's kitchen, exploring my domestic skill and created new "recipes" (none of which ever were or ever should be recreated!). I was the dutiful big sister and faithfully conscripted my younger sister (and brother) to play Barbies with me. I was a artist, author, playwrite, chef, "mom," explorer, mermaid, ranch owner, pioneer, scientist, teacher, bride, photographer-- anything my imagination would allow. I had (and still have) a very active imagination! But of all the personas I took on in my childhood play, the most important and magical of these was the princess.

I had the "benefit" of living with a mother whose tendancy was to throw things away very rarely. She kept alot of her old clothing and generally gave the stuff she no longer wore to us for dress-up rather than giving it to the local thrift store. This enabled me to dress in my mom's past finery to be the most beautiful make believe princess I could be. My siblings and I created wonderful "castles" out of  chairs, blankets, and anything our mom would let us use (or that we could get away with using before she caught us). My brother would often take on the role of the evil pirate or black knight out to kidnap the princess, while my sister would be the younger "princess."

At the moment I cannot remember if I ever roped my father into playing the role of "king," but most definately, in my heart, that is what he was to me, and what little girl, with a healthy relationship with her father, does not delight in being "his little princess"?

I was spending some time in our church's prayer room when the Misty Edwards some quoted above began to play. I paused to meditate on the music and lyrics and the line jumped out at me:

"I will crown you with my love..."

Does it ever happen to you that you realize that you have been listening to a certain song for ages, but suddenly at the least expected moment, you realize you never really listened to the lyrics? This is exactly what happened to me.

I began to think, "What does it even mean, to 'crown Christ with my love'?" At first my thoughts were of how infinately higher Christ is than us. He is God incarnate and I am human. I cannot physically reach God. Even the lifting of my hands in worship, while stretching to get as close to God as possible, really doesn't close the gap at all when one thinks about the incredible distance.

That's when I pictured something like this: A father playing "dress-up prince and princess" with his little girl. She is in a princess costume, and he is wearing his bathrobe because his daughter thought it make him look the most "like a real prince." She wears a plastic tiara and in her hands, she holds a paper crown she lovingly made for her father. There are no real jewels because they are drawn on. The lines are cut crookedly, the colours unrealistic and the crown is too small to actually fit properly on her father's head. And yet, he bends down on one knee before his little princess and she, while still yet needing a stool, reaches up and places the crown on her father's head.

Reminds me of Psalm 18:35, "...You stoop down to make me great..."

Is that not us? Do we not need Christ to stoop down before us in order to make even the smallest transaction of our love possible? And that's when I realized that "stooping down" is exactly what he did for us on the cross all those years ago. There was no way we could possibly reach him. Even Paul says that Jesus came because the Old Testament laws and rules were impossible to keep to their full extent without the help of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus came to earth to live and die as a man, he was stooping before us to make placing the crown of Lordship on his head possible.

What does my "crown" of love look like? Does my love make him king in my heart more than he already is? When I love him, do I give him more authority in my life? Does, perhaps, my crown look really good, but it was done out of duty rather than the love of someone who perhaps made a crown that looks like little more than a child's craft?

And even so, though Christ has stooped very low before us and made himself worlds more reachable, we still, at times, need a stepping stool to reach him. That stool is made possible by a firm foundation built in the quietness and consistency of intimacy and the teachability that makes the development of good character occur. Are you giving God space to build this stepping stool? I can tell you, if you are not spending time with Jesus, if your relationship with him is not a priorty, reaching up to crown the king with your "love" is going to be very difficult.

And isn't it something incredible that though Christ is legitamately a king, he allows us to place our shabby, childish and sometimes downright ugly hand crafted crowns on his royal head? He sees the time and effort put into such projects and labours of love. He sees the heart of the giver behind the gift. He stoops down to gaze very carefully and lovingly at our souls, even while we try to reach him.