Capacity to Love

Capacity to Love

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us,

that we should be called children of God!

And that is what we are!”

(1 John 3 vs. 1)

            Are we made in His image? Are we the children of God? When we are trudging along through life it is often hard to think of ourselves like either of those. First we are taught to be humble so if I am in God’s image or God like, am I being arrogant? That’s a challenge. To be a child of God seems more acceptable to me, it least it cannot be interpreted as me claiming holiness. To me these are conundrums and part of the mystery.

            So here is where I KNOW we are like GOD. When my first child was born it amazed me how much love I felt in my heart. She, Karen, meant more to me than anything I had ever experienced. It was unbelievably good.

            When my wife was pregnant with my second child I was anxious. It was impossible for me to believe that I could feel the same way. My fear was that there would never be enough love in my heart; at least certainly not to the same extreme!

            Guess what, there was plenty there; and for the third and the fourth child, the first grandchild and through the ninth grandchild. Back to the two questions- the answer is yes. We are told of God’s never ending capacity to love and in that sense we have the same capacity.

            The word is “Love your neighbor as yourself” and we have the God given capacity to do it!

Thought for Today: This week let us recognize our capacity to love, care and respect everyone we come we contact and meet.

Prayer for Today: Dear Lord, we have love in our hearts that you have shared with us. Today we pray that everyone can find this love and that we can take a step forward to world peace.

Amen