The sky is closer than you think…

The following is based on a reflection written by our eldest son, Daniel. We’ve adapted it a bit to speak more to parents. ~Jim & Lynne

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What a relief it is to know that even if I somehow managed to become the person I’m constantly striving and browbeating myself to become, it wouldn’t earn me an ounce more of God’s already-abundant love for me. No more than running a marathon brings me closer to the sky. The sky is already here, touching me and filling me and nourishing me, and I am already safe.

God’s love for us is like the sky. We think it’s far away. Probably a thousand miles. A perfect blue distant dome we can never reach, never find, never touch. Maybe we’d be able to reach it if we had a big enough rocket. If we could lift ourselves out of the mess of this world, this context, this lowly human condition.

The sky indeed stretches off far into space, far beyond the satellites and Mars missions. But the truth is, nowhere is the sky more thickly present than right down here at the earth’s surface.
Like our sky, God’s love is not at all distant — it is pressing down into this world, from every side in every millionth of every moment. Converging on us from the vast expanses. Filling us with every breath.For God so loved the world…

Neither life nor death, nor any other power — nor squabble nor failure nor tension with children or spouse — can keep us from the vast and imminent sky that is the love of Christ our Lord.

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