dailydatewithgod

God is here. We do not need to look far to find God.  Our creator has designed a place of presence within our hearts.  It is the space of light and love that is ever-present. We get confused when we focus on the darkness layered over the depth of light and love God always witnesses in us.  God is continually coming to us to renew and remind us of who we are at our core.  We hide ourselves when we sense God coming towards us because the light and love of God’s presence seems foreign to us.  It calls upon us to let go of what our ego has come to rely upon.  It is so wedded to the story we created in our minds to explain why we got disconnected.  God does not care why.  God only wants to come to us and remind us that no matter what we do or what happens, we can reunite in our hearts with our truest essence.  God’s coming is an invitation to show the darkness we have built up around our hearts and let it go by turning it over to God.

God gives. The giving and receiving of love constitutes every element of flow in the universe.  We are designed at our very core to give love and receive love.  We are an extension of all that is love.  We are the manifestation of a profound powerful love that far surpasses our understanding.  We get glimpses and notions from other people, nature, and being present.  Feeling alive is the feeling of love.  Sensing the majesty and magnitude of our breath is love.  Experiencing the embrace of love is what keeps us alive and breathing.  God has designed so many ways of gifting us with this understanding of love.  We experience it physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.  God does not place limitations on the ways love can be present in our lives.  We place limitations on our awareness by restricting it to expectations.  We imagine a gift of love will show up in a particular gesture, a certain wording, a specific person, a powerful experience or any combination of those.  Some of my most delightful days are the ones in which I am surprised by how God presented a gift of love to me.  Catching the light of the sun through my window, watching a bird swoop through the sky, the feel of the cool wind on a warm night, the sound of a homeless person’s laugh, seeing two people on a bus stop talking to one another, or a smile from a stranger.  These are the gifts of love reminding me I AM here now in this present moment paid attention to.  God notices me.  God is gifting me with love.

God is inclusive.  One of my favorite musician and song-writers is Billy Joel.  He has a way of expressing his passion through his music and lyrics.  His song, “And So It Goes” tells us: “In every heart there is a room.  A sanctuary safe and strong. To heal the wounds from lovers past, until a new one comes along.”  What I love about this imagery is its description telling us that our heart is not enclosed in a room but the room is in the heart.  The sanctuary is created by the preciousness of love itself.  We are not meant to live inside this room or use it as a protective force from love.  Rather it is the space from which love can grow and expand throughout us all.  We come to the sanctuary room to be reminded that no matter how much we give of our heart there is this space where restoration can occur.  God sees to it.  God wants us to grow more and more in love.  To do that we return again and again to the sanctuary source of that love.  Not just when we are wounded but every day, every moment, every breath.  God is ready to hold the room open for us to be restored by the Greatest Love of All.