Todd Agnew asked the question, “If you wanted me to love only you, why did you make the moonlight sparkle in her eyes?” I would like to try to answer that question.
God wants us not only to love him but to love all of his creation. To love a flower is to love him, to love a sunset is to love him, to love a snowflake is to love him. Is it hard to love him when you see all the beauty around us? Is it hard to love him when you see all the ugliness around us? It is hard to love him if you forget that he made it. It is hard to love him if you forget he is in everything you see, hear, smell, taste and touch.
God is Love so when you love you have a piece of him inside you that gives you the ability to love in the first place. If you love, you love God even though you don’t want to admit it, even though some people want to ignore his existence and deny his power.
I used to find it harder to love God because I couldn’t see him. Then I realized that he is in everything around me. He is in me, he is in those I love, He is in the people who don’t seem loveable. When you realize that the hand you hold is his, the Childs face you kiss is his, the cat curled up on your chest is his. Then you realize that if you just love, you love him. The hardest part for me is the fact that I used to hate myself. I realize now that if I hate myself I hate God because he is in me. Once I started loving myself I found loving God easier. I don’t need to feel his arms around me to know they are there. All I have to do is close my eyes and think of him and his strength and warmth fills me and his love overpowers all things around me so I know nothing but his love for me.
Loving everything and everyone like God loves them seems impossible but if you can love God in everything you see it is easier to love like God. In the good times and in the bad times, at weddings and funerals, at celebrations and at tragedies God is there and, if you look for it, God’s love is shining. It’s just hard to see sometimes.
