Love

As you know I’ve recently been struggling with daughter issues, always the more poignant as Mother’s Day approaches. On my jog this morning on the beach, my prayer time with HaShem, I was asking Him to meet her where she is. I was asking Him to reveal Himself to her in a way she would understand, perhaps so miraculously that there would be no other explanation, as He so often does. I was a hard nut to crack understanding the truth of Yeshua so not unlikely she may need a little obvious evidence of the truth of the reality of God’s love of each of us.

As I was noodling this thought around, I literally almost tripped over a heart shaped picture frame there lying “randomly” on the beach. In big letters decorating the frame were the words, “P. S. I love you.” And it wasn’t just any old picture. As if the heart shape of the frame could possibly go unnoticed, the actual picture in the frame was of a bride and groom. Our Abba pulls out all stops when He’s trying to drive home His point!

So most likely the frame with the picture of the newlyweds had been hurled into the sea, the thrower at that moment feeling rejected, the husband or wife deciding to throw away the love the couple once had for each other, not unlike my daughter who most likely long ago stopped thinking about God and His love for her, or my love for her too. But just as the sea’s waves never stop caressing the shore faithfully, so too HaShem’s love cannot be thrown away.

For our Abba’s love for us is constant and indestructible. “P.S. I love you” – how powerful to read those words at that moment as if He is saying, “By the way, no matter what else is going on, remember I love you.” And the fact that the picture was of a newly married couple at their wedding. We are as His bride, He the groom. We welcome Him each Erev Shabbat and long for the day of true reunion. Yet how often the Israelites, and mankind, have disappointed and rejected Him. And yet our Father continues to love us, always hoping we will return to Him, waiting steadfastly for us to show our love for Him. “P.S. I love you”.

How often do we reject the love of another, most often due to one too many disappointments, or because we focus on the other’s flaws instead of their virtues. Each of us are so imperfect, and we magnify the problem when we project our own imperfections onto others. “I hate that you make us late!” when often it’s our own fault for the delays. “Why can’t you be more helpful?” when we criticize the effort if different than how we would have done it.

No one can love us like our Abba, that’s for sure. But we can try to love each other emulating His model. Yeshua was sent to us to show us deeper sacrificial love, not only our Father’s sacrifice of His Son but also Yeshua’s selfless act of giving His own life for us. Each of our lives presents opportunities to grow in our capacities to love. Perhaps each of us is not expected to live as did Mother Theresa, and yet, we have been given the blessing of life to learn how to love.

Perhaps due to my daughter’s challenges she is still at an early developmental stage emotionally, more like a child focused on self rather than others, not yet understanding the nature of love. When we throw away the love of those who love us, as the tossed wedding picture into the sea, we may or may not be able to recover that love. With parents, most likely the love is as indestructible as the bond of our Father’s love for us. With others in our lives, such rejection may destroy the bond. The lessons we learn or don’t learn about love make up the story of each of our lives, either one of growth and enrichment, or one of sadness and setbacks.

As you interact in your various love relationships this week – parent, child, spouse, sibling, relative, friend, community member – I hope you think of the heart shaped wedding picture frame and feel His indestructible love for you. For if you do, the petty nuisances of others may diminish as you feel a deeper love, His that connects us all through each other, and to Him. For as you receive His love, you are able to give it to others as well, and when that happens, just as the sea washed the frame in its redemption, so too are we bathed in His love.

Shabbat shalom.
Diane

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