emerging Love

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30

Love:  (agapaō)* value, esteem, feel or manifest generous concern for, be faithful towards, to delight in

Heart: (kardia)* regarded as the seat of feeling, impulse, affection, desire

Soul: (psyche)* the seat of religious and moral sentiment

Mind: (dianoia)* thought, intention, intellect, understanding.

Strength: (ischus)* strength, might, power, faculty, ability 

*definitions from Greek

My Abba,

I realize my intense feeling of deep affection for you is so diminutive compared with the love for you I will eventually enjoy. But I am in awe of what I have experienced so far. Thank you for supernaturally seeding that love in my heart.

I see “Love the Lord your God” is a constant refrain in Scripture. My immediate response when I read it is, “Of course, I love you. To know you is to love you.” Then I really consider the meanings of the words in this verse. And I feel as confident as my five-year-old self peering over the end of the high diving board at the swimming pool.

There is a lot of space between me and where I want to be.

I want my priorities to testify to your matchless value, importance and worth. I want to clearly show my respect and admiration for you. I want to live to appreciate and reflect your utter relevance. I want to be faithful to you – loyal and steadfast. I want to delight in you. 

Are my heart, soul, mind and strength captivated by you? Are my feelings, impulses, affections, and desires fueled by my passion for you? Is my love such that my very life is devoted to you? Are my intentions, thoughts, intellect and understanding focused on you? Is all my strength, might, power, and ability aimed at pursuing relationship with you?

I am obviously still a novice in my love for you, even after all these years. Please continue to grow my love for you and all that is important to you.

I love you,

Mollie

My child,

Your love for me brings me joy. Even though, it is not unwavering, fully formed, or perfectly expressed. I see the desires of your heart, and I am always working to grow you up.

Think of one of your grandsons expressing his love by bringing you a single wilted flower, a special crayon drawing, or a clay sculpture. How do you feel when he calls your name, runs to you, and throws his arms around you? His love is young. He does not communicate it in sophisticated ways, but it delights your heart. I feel that way about you.

I want the outward expression of your love for me to result in others desiring a deeper connection with me. I want more than just a bond with you through your knowledge of the truth. I want a love relationship with you so profound it is contagious.

Hollywood depicts human romance in a way that makes everyone want what is on the big screen. (A longing is fed for that perfect man or woman with whom you will live happily ever after.) Unfortunately, the love stories they script are fantasy. The best romance between two people will never satisfy the longing I created in you just for me. Forever love with me is an attainable reality that is eternally satisfying.

As you walk with me, you will carry the life-giving fragrance of being in relationship with me. This is not fantasy. You will thrive in my embrace.

I love you,

Abba

photo: monica axtell