Journey with Jen: Known
Very few of us can think of this month without thinking about Valentine’s Day and love. To some, it is a source of great stress or sadness, but to many is it opportunity to celebrate those we hold close to our heart-be it romantically or just devotionally.
Now, I’m not a girl to turn down a heartfelt love letter or even a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a heart shaped box of chocolates, but friends, love goes so much deeper than this. You are told your entire life that you will never know love like the love of a parent to a child or with a loving wife to her superhero of a husband (I see you Chris Shultz!️), but how many days of the year do we consider the love that changed an entire world?
How often do we take pause for a love that goes so deep that is rooted in the very blood that runs in our veins, the breath in our lungs, our very flesh?
There is no love on earth that can compare to that of our Father. Our partners and helpmates were not meant to be so captivating and overwhelming, that we did not understand that God’s love is so much greater than anything we are capable of giving to one another. The Lord knows that I have tried very hard to be a jewel in other people’s crowns and the way that I love the people in my life is nothing sort of overwhelming to me some days. Even knowing the depth of how I love, my tribe knows just how often I fail them or let them down.
I never set out to be one who stumbles. The Spirit is willing, but my flesh is ever so weak. This is where things get just awe inspiring, friends... the love of God never fails, never stumbles, and it certainly never gives up the way we are inclined to when things are hard. We can do our very best to love like Him, but in the end we are not meant to. We are not built to love so deep and so wide, because if we could, wouldn’t we- in our ever constant battle to be in control- fall into placing our loved ones in to the place that should only know God?
Of the same thread, we cannot expect those who love us to not make mistakes. We were not built for perfection. We were built to love one another as HE loves us, but we will fall short. We cannot hold those who love us to a standard of perfection any more than we can hold God to our small and very boxed in human standard.
He does not have limits. He does not have boundaries. Best of all, He will never be too far from where you are right now, in this moment.
In this month of love, remember who loves you the most. Do your best to love like Him. Most importantly, remember that even when you feel alone or unloveable, God is right there with you... loving you in a way that, ahhh shiny soul, if you just KNEW and allowed yourself to be KNOWN, you would never need anything else.