dailydatewithgod

I sometimes imagine that God has these huge enveloping arms that he wraps around me for safety when I am feeling lost.  The arms are so enveloping that they wrap around me like a blanket and provide an invisible layer of protection.  It also brings the feeling of being in the fold, being surrounded completely and totally by love.  During times when I am not feeling poked at by the world I don’t picture that but it is still true.  I am always totally surrounded by love. In fact I am part of that loving essence through and through.  As I have matured in my faith and relationship with God I have found when I make time to grow that connection I see that essence lives within me. When I stop and breathe and connect with my heart I sense that same surrounding only it is not something that comes from outside of me but lives within me.  This means that I have access to it at all times and it is an integral part of who I truly am.  From that surrounding that dwells within me I can extend love and kindness to those around me because it is no longer a cloak of protection but an energy that flows in and out of me and others.  This is how we are connecting with each other.  We are one, it is only our ego that convinces us that we are separate from God and from each other. With this perspective I can see what Francis was saying when he asked God to make him an instrument of his peace:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

,  My prayer for you today is that you remember that you are not only surrounded by love but that you can be the love surrounding others. Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen