The Intimate Blend
Our Longing for Oneness
by
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Love begins with God. He is the initiator, the agent of attraction as one individual moves toward another and a kind of dance, the choreography of connection, begins. Individuals realizing something is missing and seeking connection with others is an expression of His love. God gives us this awareness as He seeks to move us toward another person and make a connection. This awareness is also present when God seeks to moves us toward a connection with Him. He may bring acute loneliness or trouble to incline us toward Him. By contrast, He may bring something affirming like a whole and healthy newborn, freedom from an addiction, or healing from a life-threatening disease. By connecting with His love, a desire to share this love with another is generated. Now there is an open heart with space to receive love from one who is separate and different from oneself. If each partner is a believer, then there is a basic and immediate point of reference, a cohesion, a drawing together toward worship, and a trajectory toward a transcendent Person, God, Creator, and Sustainer of the universe. This beginning with God is not a concept, a system of rules, or a lofty thought but is energy and movement as two individuals are drawn toward oneness.
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About the Book
In The Intimate Blend, author Gail Smith offers an invitation to explore close, authentic, and even intimate relationships in this age of hi-tech, instant connections. From age ten to now age eighty-three and through her current journey of widowhood, she’s enjoyed inspiring relationships on many levels. Some of the common projects and pursuits have included catching crickets for bait, building a treehouse, starting a Christian school, and touring Israel.
Culled from sermon notes, Bible study fellowship, precept sessions, conferences, book studies, devotional materials, scripture passages, and Facebook posts, this book gives encouragement to emerge from longing and separateness and move forward to merging, meshing, and blending in family life, friendship, marriage, and the singular life. For example, “To have a friend, is to be one.” The “being” comes before the “having.”
The Intimate Blend shares life principles and provides suggestions for ways to explore the possibilities of intimacy and then enhance connections throughout the various seasons of life.
About the Author
Gail Smith earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan and taught for several years. She and her late husband raised four children. She lives in Grand Ledge, Michigan.