love is here

Love. It draws strong emotion. We love our cell phones and big TV's and tablets. We love the new restaurant in town. We love our hair color and designer shoes and craigslist find. We love our bank and our favorite barista and our local Target.

Sometimes I forget that love is right here. Real love. The kind of love that seeps into our souls and changes us. The kind of love that makes us better, more whole. The kind of love that grounds us and sets our hearts on fire. The kind of love worth living for.

I get buried and don't see. I get stressed over bills and frustrated over piles of laundry. I get overwhelmed with a busy schedule and emotionally drained over bad news. I get tired. I get bored. I get run down by the daily grind.

So often I don't see it. I don't see real love.

I'm beginning to learn something profound. I'm finally starting to learn to look.

It's in the peanut butter smeared faces of my little ones. It's in the strength of my husband praying before we eat. It's in the callus hands of my grandfather and the wrinkled eyes of my grandmother. It's in the 'I love you' I hear nearly every time I talk to my mom. It's in the mirror-it's the blessing of my life. It's the giggles I hear from a 2 year old when I tickle her and the gut wrenching laughter that comes from my 3 year old when I tell a joke. It's the smell of my baby. Real love is the feeling of another soul hugging you so tight you become one. It's in the smelly, cattle stuffed barn where a babe lay in a manager-the tiny infant that changed the world-that changed your world. It's in the message of the crucifixion cross. It's in the crisp, cool air of a fall day and the wonder of God's creation.

Love is not a was or a will be. It is a now. It is a here. Whether we choose to see it or not. It is the present.

Pause with me, will you? Remember to look for, listen to and admire the love around you. In your home, on the street, on the internet. It's here. Don't overlook it. Choose to be present to see it. To thank God that nothing can ever separate us from His love. He chooses to lavish us with His love daily. Regardless of bad choices we make, lies we tell, souls we hurt or bodies we defile. He gives you much to love. So much to appreciate and see as love.

Know that you are loved. You are never forgotten. You are a now. You are a here.

Go see it. Go ponder it. Go take it in. Go be it.
 
With love,
Chels

^"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love..."
Romans 8:38a (NLT)