A few years ago, I went to see a Bodyworlds exhibit - an exhibit that uses real human bodies donated for research after their passing. It was phenomenal (and, let’s be honest, a little morbid, whenever you remembered these were real human beings)! 

There were people positioned as ice skaters so you could see which muscles were most engaged in the moves, and even a brain that was affected by Alzheimer’s.

Perhaps my favorite was seeing how our nerves are connected to the brain and to see them light up as they’d send a message to the brain to make decisions. To scratch or not to scratch?

As I moved from one exhibit to the next, I couldn’t help but feel in awe of our amazing God who literally knit us together. Every part of our body has a purpose, including the appendix (Google it!). What a creative God!

I found myself expressing that same sentiment while reading about animals with my kids. No zebra has the same set of stripes; no leopard with the same set of spots. What a creative God!

Even perusing through the grocery store and seeing the various types of apples available to us. Fuji, Envy, Granny Smith, Gala, Honeycrisp…what a creative God!

As I recount all the different ways I recognize the Lord’s creativity, I find myself in love with Him again. Like someone finding an old love note and reliving the butterflies and giddiness that comes with fresh love.

Not that I’ve ever fallen out of love with God, but I’ll be the first to admit, like any couple - sometimes the love becomes more part of a routine. 

Routines and disciplines are good. They keep us in check, they give us rhythm, and they keep us connected. But take your heart out of the equation and it’s more of an empty religion than a relationship.

Jesus warned us of this in the way He spoke of the Pharisees who prioritized observing the Law than recognizing the living God in their presence.

“The Lord says: ‘These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.’” Isaiah 29:13

So how do we keep our love for God burning bright? How do we keep from making our faith an empty religion and care for the relationship?

Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Remind yourself of His beautiful names and attributes. Study them, and remember how they showed up in various parts of your life.
2. Count your blessings, and dig deeper to see how the Lord was orchestrating them all along.
3. Look around you! Be intentional in the way you observe your loved ones, your environment, nature. Praise the Creator who created all of this!
4. Don’t just memorize scripture. Interact with it in a new way. Maybe it’s journaling, maybe it’s in art. Sometimes it’s just doing something in a new way is all the spark we need.

As Lauren Daigle puts it best in one of my favorite songs, “Losing my Religion”: 

“I'm losing my religion

In finding something new

'Cause I need something different

And different looks like You”