Courage

I was reading part of an accompanying book to my Bible study yesterday.  It guided me to think of a recent time or person when something or somebody made me happy -- really happy.

Of course, I started with all the expected things, like all my granddaughters and my daughters and husband and.......    Then I looked over to a table where I have an old family Bible opened to Psalm 36: 5-6.  Standing at the head of the open Bible is something that some very new but very dear and special friends gave me for Christmas.  It's a Willow Tree figurine that's titled 'Courage'. They (Eric and Sherry) were with me when I went to Belize in November and and Eric was behind me, pushing me up the Mayan ruins.  He was there with me when I made it to the top and stood victorious, Rocky-style, claiming my victory.  So when I received this from them, it was not only a gift of love but it was a token of recognition from them that I had accomplished something that was very big to me.

Psalm 36 says that God's love extends even to heaven.  It's that big and bigger;  that wide and wider; and that high and higher.  The greatness of God's love is far beyond anything we can imagine or measure.  And it is a love that will last far beyond our own being here on earth.

That love makes me happy and keeps me secure in a feeling of warmth.  The gift I received from my dear friends was an extension of that love and I will hold it and them as a sign of that forever.

Dear God, thank you for good friends, old and new, who are living in your love and go beyond themselves to show that love to others.  These signs of love remind me that your love is everlasting.  Amen