Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Dear God,

How is love created? What makes it grow? How does it endure through the twists and turns in human life?

Tonight as I worked on Christmas bags I looked at my husband slowly falling asleep in the chair adjacent to me, his head bobbing downward. I smiled, put aside my busy work and whispered to him to lay down on the floor using my lap as a pillow. As he nestled himself in comfort and fell fast away, I lay there stroking his hair. I felt my love growing.

As I reflect back on the last few years, our love was sorely put to the test by raging storms. There were so few breaks in the storm that our boat capsized and individually we nearly drowned. Yet, love's strong cord was never broken although the marriage nearly ended.

Whenever I think of love, dearest God, I think of you. My graduate paper in seminary was entitled The Divine Embrace. In it I argued that all love comes from you because you first loved us. When I experience an act of your grace, I know that grace comes from extreme love. In that moment my whole being is certain that I have just been loved deeply by you. I feel the warmth that comes from being loved.

As I held my sleeping husband close, I felt large arms hugging us both.

You are God,
so full
of love.
When I think
you cannot
love me more,
I feel
your arms
reach out
and embrace me.
Forgive me, Lord,
when I
am unlovable,
when I fail
to both receive
and give love.
Let your
loving power
grow in me
so I can
love others
like you.

Always, Andrea