Soul Sister Time

Every Easter season God shows me something personal and meaningful about the familiar story.  This year I was led to focus on the love of Easter.  In doing so I noticed more about the love that led Jesus to embrace His cross. Being egocentric and as vain as I am, I thought it was for me that He died.  While He was hanging there, He was thinking about how He couldn’t spend eternity without me.   Oh, yes, and I thought He had you on His mind, too.  I could understand the love He has for the whole world.  I knew it was love that held Him—nothing else could hold the One who created the Universe to a shameful cross. But John 14:31 shed more light on the love that fastened Jesus to the hard wood of the cross.  It was His love for His Father.  John writes :  But the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.   Come now; let us leave .  That was that.  He left the upper...

            Love is the best gift this world has to offer.  It breaks my heart that there are so many souls who are born, live, and die without experiencing true love.  This world is full of heartache and pain as well as some wonderful, thrilling and exciting experiences.  None is worth experiencing without love.  St Valentine was a man who knew true love.  His name is associated with valentines, flowers and chocolates; but the love he lived by and showered on those in his spiritual community was much richer than trite sentiments or frivolous gifts.  He showed the world true love.  When a person can shower others with love, it is evidence that they have received the love God pours into our hearts.  St Valentine gave practical, sacrificial gifts of love to help the people in his care follow Christ’s instructions for marriage in his society.  The love that motivated St. Valentine was th...

            Love is evidence of being created in the image of God.   It is the remnant of our divine origins.   God’s love is the miracle that created Christmas.   It was God’s amazing love for us that prompted Him to send His only Son to us as a babe whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.   It’s the warmth of that love that we encounter during the season.   In the midst of the black Friday brawls, there are amazing stories of strangers showing extraordinary love because God first loved us.   Every time you encounter extraordinary love this Christmas, you encounter the holiness of the holiday.             When we light the candle of love, it is can be referred to as the Mary Candle.   Mary’s love for God motivated her to say Yes to the life-changing encounter with an angel and become the home for Jesus.   Her love for God transform...

            It is heartwarming to see the overwhelming demonstration of love that brews during the Christmas season.   News reporters focus on stories of the kindness of strangers and communities pulling together to make sure that no one goes without a Christmas gift in between the never ending accounts of crimes and catastrophes.             It’s deemed newsworthy that soldiers are reunited with their families on Christmas Eve.   Food banks and homeless shelters are flooded with volunteers.   Otherwise unconcerned citizens make efforts to smile and greet one another.   Love fills the atmosphere at Christmas and brings joy to the season.             The radical love that produced Christmas is bittersweet.   Christmas began because of the separation of Jesus Christ from His Father as He came...

            I like shocking titles.   I’m not sure I achieved what I set out to say with the title I chose.   I want to be clear.   The wrath of God is good.   We would be lost without it.   I’m absolutely indebted to the wrath of God.   I can honestly say that when I truly take in God’s wrath, I can sleep better at night knowing that all will be made right in the world.             Where are these thoughts coming from?   I’ve had a hard couple of weeks.   I’ve had to face some harsh realities of this world.   I have been powerless to change them.   They stink.   There is no other way to say it.   There is so much in this world that is not right and will not be put right in the forseeable future.   It is what it is.             But it isn’t.   It m...