If there were one gift I could give these precious sisters, it would be this: the heart-deep knowledge that they are loved.  Unconditionally, fiercely, eternally.

We are all so hungry for it, in so many ways.  It shows up in the way we worry and struggle for more and grieve what is lost.  It shows in the sharing of our stories and all the ways we look for connection.  It even shows in the ways we distract ourselves with trivialities, wasting our time so we don’t have to face the bigger things that matter.  Underneath all of it is the one foundation question of a woman’s heart.  Does anyone love me?  Am I pretty enough…good enough…capable enough to deserve love?

And of course we are not deserving, and we feel it– the Original Sin at our roots– so that we give silent assent to the whispers inside, the constant reminders that we have fallen and are failing.  It is our broken piece that Woman carried from Eden, this hunger for love and the separation from the relationships we were meant for.

And yet it’s there, over and over, so why is it so hard for us to hear?  “Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the clouds” (Psalm 36:5) ….”Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands . . . (Isaiah 49:15-16)….”This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed His life for us.” (1 John 3:16)….”As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.  Abide in my love.” (John 15:9)

The simple truth shines out like a beacon, in the middle of our lesson on putting love into action…“The energy for love flows not out of any effort, but simply from being loved.” (Mike Mason, The Mystery of Marriage)  In order to love others we must know first that we are loved undeservedly and completely, not out of anything we can do– because then we would spend all our days trying to do enough– but because of who God is.  He is love.  Unconditional, self-giving, faithful love.  Poured out daily on His creation, and lavished on His children.  Pure grace that mends the broken places, frees our hearts to love others.   Receiving His love is the place we must start.

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Eph.3:14-19)