No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:12
When I read this verse the other day it just struck me that indeed if we want people see God we must love one another. It really doesn’t even matter what we say or if we do all the right things if we don’t love like God loves no one will be able so see God in us.
Loving like God loves is not always easy. Its like breaking your heart in thousands of little pieces and handing them out like communion bread. Those thousands of pieces may be distributed all over the world and that is tricky because of the true saying, “ Home is Where The Heart is. “ Where is home when your heart pieces are scattered like feathers in the wind? Our hearts need to be with God and that is where home is- with God. And God keeps multiplying love and heart pieces like the 5 loaves and 2 fishes he used to feed the five thousand hungry people long ago! As long as we keep breaking and giving he keeps multiplying!!
One evening as the sun cast its last light over the empty market place I stood under a crude shelter with a dear, old, bag, lady who roams the streets by day and spends her nights hiding behind an old table in the market. I looked into her cloudy eyes and asked her if she knows God and I reached out my soft, young, hand and touched her dirty, worn hand and it was a holy, unforgettable, moment. That moment when a piece of my heart is torn off and given with an open hand asking nothing in return but to see God.
On Tuesday when I laid baby Kerry on a little bed in a government office in the city and walked out I felt it again- that tearing of heart and I tucked a piece into his little chubby paw to hold onto forever. A couple days earlier his mother abandoned him in our yard, leaving him in the tall grass for the ants to feast on until someone heard his pitiful cries. Poor, poor, baby, boy someone loves you and cares for you more than you can imagine! Someone who created you perfect, exactly the way he wanted you to be.
And so we have a continuous communion with a heart torn into pieces like bread and shared in love. And I pray that God is seen and felt and worshiped in this life.
2 comments:
Mary Ann thank you for writing that. I read it and immediately sent some of it to a friend that just came home from missions. It takes so much courage to hurt and love with people over and over. Bless u for seeing the long term vision and the way God multiplies!!
love Sarah Brubacher
I can identify with this feeling... "Where is home when your heart pieces are scattered like feathers in the wind?"... I've often said there's chunks of my heart scattered across the globe. One of the positive results of that is a longing for the permanency and reunion of heaven. ~Linda Horst
Post a Comment