Journeying to Grace

I try to be good about reading various articles, reflections, and books on God, prayer, and spirituality. I am especially enriched when others share their faith experiences, and I welcome the helpful insights, encouraging perspectives, and useful prayer methods that help strengthen my faith and bring comfort. There are occasions when I need to reread detailed or involved passages and spend more time on them to better understand the message and how it may work in my spiritual life. I don’t want to miss or overlook something enlightening. But over the weekend, I read from a different source and was graced with a powerful reminder which was short and to the point. No extra time needed to understand or figure it out, just time to prayerfully embrace it with great gratitude. A simple message but one full of truth, love, and hope. It is the very core of our faith: God loves you.

I read these words on the cardboard pages of a toddler’s book and immediately felt it in my heart. God loving us is a building block of our faith, so it is a perfect message to introduce a child to God, and it is the perfect, simple, and clear message for our own renewal. The very things we tell a young child about God loving us are the things we need to hear again, too. God loves us when we’re happy, when we’re sad, when we’re praying, when we’re working, when we’re hurt, when we’re sleeping, when we’re playing, when we’re in trouble…. God loves us all the time. All the time. We know and believe this, but how well do we truly live it and rejoice in it? What a wonderful grace to share this truth with each other and through each other.

We know God is love, and that love is for us. Let us pray that the eternal promise of this simple message of God loves you fills our hearts with joy every day, and in thanksgiving, we are faithful examples of His love to one another.