“Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.” Ephesians 4:2-3
Right now, I am sitting on a hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The sun is starting to rise, the birds are singing, beauty all around and yet if I am not careful, I will miss reflecting on the blessings God has given in His creation and a new day.
You know when you are busy or caught up in the day to day we can miss the simple things. We miss how amazing it is that all of creation is provided for. We miss that God has breathed life in to our very being. We miss the people God has put around us. We can miss seeing God. We can miss how much God loves us. And it so easy to miss all of that.
When you stare out to the ocean you see the vastness. You see the power. You see so much and yet still see so little. It really puts me in my place, seeing that I am so small in the comparison to everything in this life. And yet God knows the number of hairs on our head, he hears every cry, he sees the things that no one else does, and he knows our hearts more than even we know.
Stop and think about that for a moment. It is so hard to understand that because we cannot love everything and know everything so intimately. But rather than trying to understand something that is so vast, lets just rest in the knowing the truth that God loves us deeply. God loves you deeply.
When I look out to the Pacific, I cannot see the end. It is too big. God’s love is bigger than that. And unlike all the oceans, it has no ending. It is a love that endures forever. What do we do with that?
We should let that love propel each of us to love more. To wake up each morning praising our Creator. Be patient with those around us, even when patience does not seem deserved. Making allowance for other’s faults because that is a love given to us. This world would look different, our lives would look different if we loved others.
We must love our neighbor. Even when they infuriate us. When they betray us. When they cut us off. When they are rude. When they differ with us politically. When they stand for something wrong. When they hurt us.
Think about the person we betrayed, didn’t give time to, were rude with a poor attitude, differed with the desires you have, standing sometimes in the wrong, and hurt them. And not just hurt them, ultimately killed them. This is what we have done to our Lord and Savior.
And yet He loves us. He forgives us. He redeemed us. And that is reason to rejoice. It is reason to praise Him today. “Nothing can separate us from God’s love.” Romans 8:38
We do not deserve the love that is given to us. Even when we ignore the things God is doing in our lives, he continues to love. His love endures forever. How amazing is that! Let us love Him! Let us love others!
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