Blog # 36 GIFTS

Blog # 36 GIFTS To love means to give. In the light of this fact how beautiful and full of meaning are the words of St. John in his first epistle ( 1 Jn 4: 16) :We have come to know and believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. Everything that is is from God. All creation is a gift. The moon, the sun, the stars wind and rain ice and snow gardens hillsides oceans deserts and desserts trees and flowers fruit and cattle light and warmth wisdom goodness sound and silence birds and butterflies, all that is is a gift from God, Who is love, ever giving, giving all. What a difference it makes to realize this! How easy it is to pray when we realize everything is from God. Yesterday today and tomorrow, all is from God. How urgent, yet easy it is to say thank You, Lord, for loving me. Green is the color of God's love. How much love have you seen today? Blue is the color of God's love. How much love have you seen today? Red orange yellow are all the color of God's love. How much love have you seen today? Even though we do not understand or remember, all creation is a gift. God is in it always. God keeps giving even though we fail to recognize it as a gift and think it is our own in every way, even though we abuse it and treat it selfishly and wastefully. God keeps giving. the sun keeps shining even on homes darkened by quarrels and selfishness. The sky is blue and the grass is green even for a thief and a murderer. Like the wind in a tornado God's love is not overcome by obstacles. And we are to love one another as Jesus loved us! ( Jn 13 12ff). "If I washed your feet...then you must wash each other's feet. What I just did was to give you an example: as I have done so you must do. (Jn13: 34). "Such as my love has been for you so must your love be for one another." (Eph 5: 2f). Follow the way of love even as Christ has loved you. He gave Himself for us as an offering to God, a gift of pleasing fragrance. (1Jn 4:11) Beloved, if God has loved us so, we must have the same love for one another. What a world it would be...!