Sunday, August 31, 2008
Common Grounds - God is love
“In reality hell is not such an intention of God as it is an invention of man. God is love and people are precious. Authentic truth is not so much taught or learned as it is remembered. Somewhere in your preincarnate consciousness you were loved absolutely because you were. Loved absolutely, and in reality, you still are! Remember who you are!” – Bishop Carlton Pearson, Author, Speaker, Spiritual Leader, and Recording Artist.
Perfect love. Absolute love. I think of the love of a mother for her unborn child. I recall the preparations for my firstborn: the enormous prenatal vitamins, the repeated trips to the doctors, the shopping for whatever they told me I needed in What to Expect When You Are Expecting. Some mothers even read stories and “talk” to the unborn child growing in their womb. Friends and family host baby showers - showers of happiness and love.
God loved us before we were born. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:13-14). His love endures.
Do you know what it is like to be loved so completely? Not for what you have done or even what you will become but simply for being. For who you are. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called Children of God!” (1 John 3:1).
God created an entire world for us. That is God’s love for us. “I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers; the moon and the stars which you have set in place.” (Psalm 8:3). All the magnificence that we see each day - and sometimes overlook - he made out of love for us. Start with the garden and all its beauty, majesty and bounty. Adam and Eve lived beside God. They spoke with him, and they spent time daily with him, as children of God. I believe that is how God intended it to be.
Adam and Eve were tempted and fell from God. It was not His intention. It was our invention. We make mistakes. Yet, through His love for us, He never gives up. His mercy is great. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16). He is mighty to save.
I love to watch my children sleep. It is such a great blessing to stop in their rooms before I go to bed each night and look at their sweet faces. In their slumber, all the craziness of the day disappears. You forget the fights over bath time and the whining about eating vegetables and the tears and the bickering. They are transformed, like little angels
Every day I tell my kids that I love them. They are nearby and still young enough that I can smother them with hugs and kisses. The time may come for squirming or protest, but until then we snuggle and have our special bedtime tradition. After we recap the day and share our hopes for tomorrow, we pause to express our absolute love. Many of you remember the book Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. It tells the story of a boy growing up and all the havoc he wreaks in his lifetime. More important, it sings of the enduring love of his mother. A love that overcomes all mischief and mistakes. Each night, Charlie and I sing the refrain from the book: “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living, my baby you’ll be.”
God loves us like that too. He is near. We may not feel His hugs and kisses or notice Him rocking us to sleep each night, yet His love is unfailing. He delights in hearing our prayers each night as we recap the day and share our hopes for tomorrow. Through our sins and our flaws, God’s love endures. “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed (by our sin), for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is God’s faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22 emphasis added).
Reconnect with God’s love. Take time this week. Pause from your daily routine to reflect on God’s love for you. Allow yourself to reconnect with the authentic truth of His absolute love for you. As Max Lucado encourages us in A Love Worth Giving, “the secret to loving is living loved.”
“May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.” (Ephesians 3:17 NLT).
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2 comments:
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. You reminded me of this quote by Marianne Williamson.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
I was having a bad day until I was reminded of all the love there is in this world. It's easy to have a little pity party and get too wrapped up in feeling alone or scared or sad.
I was reminded by my friend April that it is a choice we all can make. We can choose to focus on the good or we can choose to only see the bad.
What tricks do you have for staying positive? What helps you remember all the love in the world even in the midst of a run of bad luck?
I find that my days that start in prayer, both speaking with and listening to the voice of God are my most joy filled days. I can begin my day with purpose and clarity, fully attuned to the love that surrounds me.
"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ." (from Ephesians 3:17-18)
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