Friday, November 28, 2008

How He Loves

How He Loves

Thank you God for teaching me how to love. Never before, have I felt such a love for others as I have now.

Over the past couple years God has been showing me how to love. To love deeply, to love all, to love at all times, to love you.

First I had to learn how to except God’s love for me. He loves me beyond all reason and that is how I am to love.

Chris Abshire had God’s love, Rosie Woodring had God’s love, Kathy Cousins had God’s love, Herb Reisig Sr. had God’s love. All four of these beautiful people let God in and let Him love them. All four of these people have died and gone to be with God.

On Thanksgiving day as we drove to Allentown Nate and I listened to, How He Loves by JohnMark McMillan. I first thought of Chris. A talented young man who praised God, it seemed with every breath. He sang this song and that’s how I first heard it. There is no other like Chris. Then I thought of my mom Rosie. She understood God, She was sweet and funny, a woman that believed and trusted God no matter what. There is no other like my mom Rosie. Kathy Cousins loved people every day, she even had a list on how to love and lived her life by it. She trusted God. There is no other like Kathy. Herb Sr. spent his whole life running away from God’s love but eventually got weary of running so he stopped and when he turned around, met Jesus. He spent the rest of his days loving God and his family. There is no other like Herb Sr.

My point is that God loves us each past overflowing. He loves us like no other because we are each so unique. It's like the love that I have for my own children. I love them with the same extordinary strength but each of our relationships are just as different as each of their personalities.

All four of these wonderful people died from Cancer between May of ’98 and Nov. 2008. Each one became sweeter still in their final days. I believe God picked them at their ripest. God talks about pruning in the Bible and I’ve always thought of it strictly as pruning the dead branches so the rest of the vine doesn’t die, however with fruit one has to pick the ripe fruit so that more fruit can grow. So many people’s lives were touched by the pruning of these four lives. As loved ones who will never see them again this can be hard to deal with, but with understanding we can. Their suffering was not God’s plan but rather just a part of this world we live in. We can not escape sin or the consequences of it. Our bodies are flawed because we live in a world that is flawed because of our sin.
God is the healer of our souls and if it is His will, our bodies as well but if we truly love Him we will bend to His will and trust Him even if that means pruning.

I feel as though I’m growing again so I’m enjoying this fresh wind that is blowing over me. Loving others the way that I should is so refreshing and is opening my eyes to a more powerful Worship. I encourage anyone who has been feeling a lack of worship to first, make sure you really are letting God love you and then, evaluate how deeply you love others. I didn’t realize how much God loved me until I started taking pictures of nature and more and more of my children. I saw how God made these clouds for me to enjoy, the fields for me to look at and trees to make me wonder, the sun to cheer me and the rain to slow me down and my children to enjoy it all. I love teaching them about all of God’s creations.
These were the thoughts going around in my head this Thanksgiving season. I’ll pray that God gives you understanding as I feel I didn’t write very coherently due to the newness of it all and my tiredness.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Suzie...nice piece.....thanks for including Kathy. Kathy lived her life following the teachings of Romans 12:9-10: “Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.” We can all learn from her example.

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