The breeze is gently wisping around outside as the sun sinks low. I just enjoyed a few moments of peace as I watched the blue-rippling water and the lovely shades of color splash across the sky as the sun sets outside the Coast Guard Station. I recited the beautiful words of 1 John 3 that remain a timeless testimony to my heart of God's great love for me. "See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God....We know love by this that He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3:1,16). I truly cannot measure God's love for it has no limits. So I set my heart on the lovely pursuit of knowing God's love; a joy that can only be met in openness. Open eyes will see a world touched by grace and sustained by a patient and kind Creator who is all-powerful and glorious in splendor and yet so generous in love to those who think such little thoughts of His existence. Open hands are ready to receive the gifts of love and grace that the Lord alone bestows. Open hands know that in love God gives and takes away because God's gifts are but for a time, and they are to be enjoyed in their time with thanksgiving. Open hearts quietly wait and eagerly look to the Father to meet all needs and to lavish true love without limits. Open hearts do not try and hide, they do not try and disguise who they are or what they've done, but instead they trust that God's word is true and that His love is real.
This wondrous gift of life is a gift from God---He is the Giver, and He is good. The sin of fear will rob us of all hope and joy and trust and we will miss out on knowing God's great love. It will make us closed-eyed people who cannot see the beauty of God that surrounds us each and every day. It will make us closed-fisted children who refuse to accept God's gifts because of the fear of losing them. If we are such children we will never enjoy God's blessings because we would rather not feel the pain of loss. Fear will make us closed-hearted Christians who are so caught up with self that nothing else matters. How do I know that all this is true? Because I have been one of these closed-eyed, closed fisted, and closed-hearted ones, and all it really is is selfishness. Selfishness will keep us from knowing God's love. However the person who walks in selflessness will know no limits to God's love---this is the difference between the open and closed life.
It is hard to live openly though because it means we must face our fears. We must embrace the painful truth that God is the Giver but He is also the one who takes away. When God gives it is easy to see His goodness, but when He takes away we are shaken and left doubting His goodness. I am wrestling with these hard truths, these deep mysteries. But as I live openly before the Lord something else begins to grow within my heart which helps me as I grapple with these hard issues---TRUST. Yes trust grows as I walk in love and as I know God's love. I learn that God is good in giving and He is all the more good in taking. He gives His gifts for a time to be enjoyed. These gifts are to point us back to the Giver. We must remember that in love He gives and in love He takes and our response is to be the same---just as Job worshiped before the Lord when He endured the hardships and testings He experienced in life---"Blessed be the Name of the Lord!"
Jesus is the best example of a life lived openly. He lived moment by moment in God's love, and then in love He laid His life down for us. God knows the pain and joy of His "giving and taking" more than we ever will, and now He has called us to be partakers with Him. It takes courage to live this kind of life, but it is also so wonderful to live openly enjoying God's love and waiting expectantly to see just what He will do next.
Very well and wonderfully said Sara.
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