God's Love

I was trying to figure out what I could blog about tonight, while Darin is out playing a gig and earning money to grow our adoption fund, and Jonathan is sleeping soundly.  I decided to post something about love, so I got out the book, "Get Off Your Knees and Pray", by Sheila Walsh.  A page was marked that I don't recall ever reading before, and I thought I'd share with you all what it says.  It is found on pages 55-56 under the subheading, "Prayer Makes a Difference in Us."

"If God has already decided the future, does prayer make a difference?  The answer is yes.  Prayer makes a difference in us.  And although it might not make a difference in our unchanging God, it is a gift to him.  When used properly, as something more than a ritual, prayer allows us to communicate with God and be reminded of his love and his plan for us.  How would it impact your life if you walked around every day with a deep awareness of being overwhelmingly loved?  God wants people who will share his heart and work with him for things that have eternal worth, not simply people who place value on the words of the moment.  If we can look at prayer that way, there's no way we can doubt the difference it makes in our lives.

And yet we can't help but get discouraged when we are desperate for God to act and heaven seems silent - when even though we want to share his heart, he appears not to see that ours is broken."

There's a wideness in God's mercy,

Like the wideness of the sea; 

There's a kindness in His justice, 

Which is more than liberty.

There is no place where earth's sorrows 

Are more felt than up in Heaven;

There is no place where earth's failings 

Have such kindly judgment given.

There is welcome for the sinner,

And more graces for the good;

There is mercy with the Savior;

There is healing in His blood.

There is grace enough for thousands

Of new worlds as great as this;

There is room for fresh creations

In that upper home of bliss.

For the love of God is broader

Than the measure of our mind;

And the heart of the Eternal

Is most wonderfully kind.

~Frederick W. Faber

My favorite line from the above poem is "There is no place where earth's sorrows are more felt than up in Heaven."  That statement is profound, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.  God's love is immense; it is incomparable to any other kind of love.  Sometimes in my sorrow, I forget to lean on God, and I look for earthly encouragement, when all the while God is calling out to me to come to him and to let him be by number one comforter.

Darin and I are trying to teach this same thing to Jonathan.  When he tells us that he's scared, we tell him that Jesus is always with him, and that he does not need to be afraid.  Tonight, Jonathan was going to his room for bedtime, but the lights were out and he ran back to me saying, "Mommy, I scared of the dark!"  It was the perfect teachable moment, one we've had many times, as I talked to Jonathan about Jesus's love for him. When I finished, I asked him who would always be with him.  He grinned and shouted, "Jesus!"  

Thank you, Lord, for my son's childlike faith.  I pray that he will always lean on Jesus and follow him all the days of his life.