Divine Love (c) Ethel Hiday Wicksey
http://ethelswritings.yolasite.com/
Divine Love
I will never be able to explain it. It was such a surge of power. It was like being held all at once in the arms of all the people in the whole world that had ever loved me, but more. I remember it, as if it had happened yesterday.
I wanted to write something new about love, for Valentines Day. It was the first week of January and the Christmas season was over for another year. We had spent days, remembering the birth of Gods’ only Son Jesus Christ. My family went to church together to see a special program. We sang praises to our Heavenly Father, thanking Him for the gift of His Son Jesus Christ. Our family gathered in our new home, beside the Christmas tree to open special gifts.
Friends and family came to visit on Boxing Day. It was good to just sit and relax. We ate leftovers for supper. We played new games and laughed. We reminisced about our past, as we looked at the pictures in the photo albums.
The following week we gathered with church friends to wait for the stroke of 12. We counted 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. We said Happy New Year, and then everyone started to hug. People were given a chance of a new beginning, a New Year.
Christmas cards and letters are starting to collect dust on the shelf now. It is January; we packed the Christmas decorations, away in boxes, for another year. The snow is deep outside our living room window. Birds are competing for food at the birdfeeder. Holiday lunches with friends and family, are just memories.
The next holiday we celebrate, will be Valentines Day. People will send cards, candy, or flowers to their special loved ones. I wanted a special writing, about the love of God, to send to my friends for Valentines Day. I prayed about it for a few days and asked God for his help. The following writing is how God answered my prayer.
DIVINE LOVE
Just stop what you are doing and sit down for a few minutes. If it is winter, get a warm comforter or blanket and wrap yourself in it. Relax by your fireplace; or by a quiet brook and think about all the people, God has put in your life to love you. If you want, get a pen and paper, or better yet a notebook. Make a list of their names in it! Take a moment to recall an incident where they hugged you and said I love you (_______). (Put your name in the blank!)
“It took me hours to do this. I am still adding names.” After you are finished your list, read it over and add to it all the people who have died, that have loved you. Remember one or more occasion in your life, that you shared a hug with them. Now take the time to think about, all the new people that you will call friends in the future, who will love you and give you a hug. “Since I wrote this I have added a lot of new names to this list. One special friend brought me a meal in my time of need.”
Now it is time to feel the touch of God's Divine Love. Try to feel what it would be like, if all these people were giving you a hug at the same time. I did, the morning of, January 15, 1999. It was as if a power surge went through my whole body. It was the love of God, as I had never felt it before. I felt the hugs and love from everyone who had loved me in my past and present at the same time. I felt the love and hugs of all the people who will hold and love me in my future. It was so powerful that I am unable to explain it with words. It was Divine Love! It was so powerful, that I still get all choked up when I think about it.
God your Father up in heaven, through His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit, wants to love you more than anyone has ever loved you. The love God has for you is so powerful, that it could light every light bulb in the whole world. It is more powerful, than all the electricity that is being created in the whole world right now. His love for you is so awesome. It is an everlasting love. No words can explain it.
You cannot see love, but you see and feel the evidence of it every day. How can you look at the beauty of a rainbow, or into the eyes of a newborn baby without seeing the evidence of it? How can you sit in the warmth of a sunbeam, or hear the water of a rushing stream cascading over a mountain cliff, without feeling and hearing the power of God's love? How can you look at a snowflake under a microscope, without seeing the diversity of God's love? Every snowflake that has ever fallen is different; no two are the same.
God never intended us to be a clone. He created all of us, yes-even identical twins different. God says in Genesis that we were created in His (God's) image. What a thought! All the people who ever loved me and given me a hug are created in God's image. When we accepted Jesus as our personal savior, God sent His Son Jesus and the Comforter, (Holy Spirit) to live inside us. We became a church family, sisters and brothers in Christ.
Now the meaning of what happened is coming clearer. Every time someone who is a Christian gave me a hug, You God were surrounding me with Your arms. You live inside them. You gave people arms, so they could hold me and love me for You.
The picture is getting clearer. What I felt this morning, while lying in bed, was the remembrance of Your love flowing through them into me. When we love someone, (I mean really love someone,) we are sharing the Love God has for that person with them. When I take the time to pray for a person, I am surrounding that person with the loving arms of God. When I cry with a friend, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit who live within me, cry along with me. When I am giving a friend a hug, I share the joy with God. When I share in a happy moment with a friend, I feel the love of God bursting inside me.
A light bulb just came on. We represent You God and Your Son Jesus here on earth. You gave us arms to hold the widow, who just lost her husband. You gave us a smile and laughter, to share when we feel so good inside, that we cannot contain it. You gave us eyes, to see the beauty of a butterfly. You gave us a heart, to feel the love of a special friend. You gave us ears to hear the words of a dear friend, say I love you.
It was the arms of God, I felt this morning, when He shared with me the love of all the people who have and will ever love me.
Thank you God!
My prayer is that you will take time to remember all the people who have ever loved you and given you a loving hug. Remember, that at that very moment our Divine Father God, up in heaven loved you. He sent you into their life for that very moment, so that you might feel His love.
With Christian Love,
Ethel (Hiday) Wicksey
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
I know now that God gave me this special experience and writing, to bless me. In March just two months after I wrote Divine Love, the Doctors told me I had breast cancer. It is ten years later and I am cancer free. When I reread this writing, I see how much I was blessed through my cancer. It was the love and prayers of friends, family, and people who I will never know, which gave me the courage and strength to go through the four operations. No radiation or chemotherapy was ever needed.
Thank you
Ethel
© Ethel Hiday Wicksey
