God is love.
Whoever lives in love
lives in God,
and God in him.
I John 4:16
The most important gift that anyone can ever give us is the gift of themselves. More than anything else, children need their parents to give themselves in love to them. They need their parents to breathe life into them. To see them and know them and guide them and care for them. To teach them and nurture them. To pour their lives and love into them.
God, our true Parent, the Giver of every good and perfect gift, gives this most important gift of all to us. God gives God’s Self to us in love.
In the Genesis story of creation we read that human life begins with the breath of God. And so it is, every day, every breath we breathe, we are breathing in the life of God which has been breathed out to us.
The Gospels continue this understanding of God. The Gospels tell the story of God coming to us in Jesus. Jesus was Immanuel, God with us. The healing life of Jesus was God-in-flesh, giving God’s Self to us. And then, most astonishing of all, in Christ’s death God poured out the loving heart of God to all. God poured out grace, forgiveness, mercy, hope and the life of God to us all.
And so it is that every day, every moment, God pours out God’s Self to us. God gives it all away. Flowing from the heart of God is all the goodness and kindness and love and mercy and forgiveness that are the life of God.
Our part is to receive. Our part is to breathe in the breath of God and live–to say “Yes” to God and receive the life and love of God, to invite God to live in us so that we might live in God so that we might live in love, which is life itself.
The heart of all prayer, of all living, is this: receiving God.
When we receive the gift of the other, whether human or divine, we receive by opening our hearts in love. We receive the love of another by giving our heart–our love–in return.
May we receive the gift of our loving God more fully each day. May this be our prayer.
You give yourself to me.
You pour yourself,
Grace, Love, Life,
Light, Peace, Joy.
Your pour yourself out to me, into me, through me.
My heart’s desire
is to receive you,
to be home to you.
Grant me the grace
to receive the gift of you
more and more each day.
Prayer suggestion:
Invite God to make your heart soft, open, ready to receive the gift of God.
Sit quietly, breathing slowly, easily.
See the Light of God’s love surrounding you and filling you.
Allow yourself to receive this gift of God, allow yourself to be filled with Love.
His love, patience, and character along with how He sees us, hears us, and heals us has been my theme this week while meditating. I find it is so hard to accept His love, His nonjudgemental stance, that He truly sees us, loves us,and heals us… He reminds me “A bruised reedHe will not break” Im trying to take that all in while dealing with anxiety about feelings people have or don’t have for us. Jesus, may I fully and freely drink of you and all you are. Please fill me today, and quench my thirst, water the dry areas of my life so I can grow. Most of all alleviate my fears, some very real, some just in my head, and help us to trust you more.
What a beautiful, healing way to meditate, Jackie. The psalmist said he “mediates on God’s unfailing love.” This is a way to slowly drink in that unfathomable love. It is a way to rest a bit more each time in the Arms of that Love. Praying with you, this tender, powerful prayer.