Glimpsing Love (capital "L")
Lately I have been trying to be more intentional about looking for God as I go about my days at the hospice (and when I am anywhere else...). Today I feel like I glimpsed a little bit of God in an interaction with the wife of a patient. The wife was talking about caring for her spouse over the past decade since he became ill, and that during the past several years it has gotten a lot worse. She described some of the care she has given, and a lot of the really hard stuff she has had to go through with her husband. I was very moved by the depth and bigness of her love for him.
Then it struck me, well really the Holy Spirit showed me, that as overwhelmingly large as this wife's love is for her husband, it is nowhere even close to comparable with the love God has for me (and all her children, really). I almost cried as I kept listening to the wife, just realizing how big her love is, and knowing that I often do not perceive God's love to be as deep; when in reality it is MUCH stronger and deeper.
It is sometimes difficult to really get a handle on God's love though, because most times God's love is not visible and easy to detect. But love between humans is visible, and I can really understand and see the bigness of it. So I guess I am thankful for being able to see such deep love people have for each other; especially at hospice when people are in the midst of some deep grieving and pain. It gives me just a small glimpse into God's love for me, and all of humanity.
Then it struck me, well really the Holy Spirit showed me, that as overwhelmingly large as this wife's love is for her husband, it is nowhere even close to comparable with the love God has for me (and all her children, really). I almost cried as I kept listening to the wife, just realizing how big her love is, and knowing that I often do not perceive God's love to be as deep; when in reality it is MUCH stronger and deeper.
It is sometimes difficult to really get a handle on God's love though, because most times God's love is not visible and easy to detect. But love between humans is visible, and I can really understand and see the bigness of it. So I guess I am thankful for being able to see such deep love people have for each other; especially at hospice when people are in the midst of some deep grieving and pain. It gives me just a small glimpse into God's love for me, and all of humanity.
posted by bethany at 8:01 PM
2 Comments:
Love is so HUGE. Now that my relationship has finally stabilized somewhat, and I'm loving someone after the amorous haze has cleared, I see how my love was... is... so selfish! God knows love and IS love. And it is so hard to grasp. We will never grasp it, and when we see it, it is so rare. There are things that are kind, sweet, sincere, endearing... but I also believe that true stories of LOVE are so moving... Check this one out about a father-son relationship. It brings me to tears everytime: http://www.cnn.com/US/9911/29/hoyt.family/. Love well!
God is Love I John 4:8. Love is patient and is kind; love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud, doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. I Cor 13:4-10
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