The Eyes of the Heart, Pt. 2

It has been over a year (almost year and a half) since I have written and published a blog. Written, yes. Published, no. A lot has happened in the last year, but my reason/s for not writing has nothing to do with the insanity and sheer nuttiness of the world… if anything, it has been for the insanity and nuttiness within me. As I’ve hinted in previous blogs, it may have had something to do with a girl, although I won’t really touch on that here. What it has had to do with though, is my journey with God.

I’d like to say that for the last year+, life has been rainbows and unicorns and being led by still waters to lie down in green pastures, but it hasn’t…as I’m guessing the last year and a half of anyone’s life hasn’t been. However it is life, and life serves one ultimate purpose… to lead us towards death. That’s not me being negative in the slightest. It’s just what happens. For every one began ends in death…#truestory. Well, except for Enoch and Elijah and Jesus.. but the odds of that happening to any of us… pretty slim.

And herein is why I’m writing again. It is who I am and what I do. I am a writer. It is my gift and I’ve done okay with it up to now on a very, very, very small scale… but I need to do more. “Feed My sheep” is how I believe He put it…and continues to put it. “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, yet don’t do what I say?” Yes, Lord…I will do what you say. Yet I’ve written very little here and almost none in the last three years, whereas I had been writing every day. Would I have liked to be writing as I had before? Yes. I have at least fifty ideas and/or topics to write about, and more opportunities arise daily… yet here I sit.

But this…ALL of this, the last five years have been a part of my journey…to get me to here. I’m okay with words, but am not overly eloquent. I don’t have a filter in real life, so I don’t see the need to have one here. But I will write to honor God and don’t believe He would want me to filter His words….or say anything that needs to be. And while I believe God has given me the words to say in previous blogs, I think He wants me to step up my game. He wants me to write from my heart.

I have named and renamed my blog a few different times over the years before settling on The Eyes of the Heart. Here are a few reasons why. One of my favorite authors, Frederick Buechner, who I will quote occasionally titled one of his books the same. And, of course, it led me to one of my favorite Bible verses, Ephesians 1:18-20.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms…

“Know the hope to which He has called you” “His great power for us who believe” “…the same power that raised Christ from the dead”… I don’t know about you, but I want me some of that. “The riches of his glorious inheritance”… such a great chapter of the Bible. Such a great book in the Bible. All of the promises of God are for us.. on Earth as it is in Heaven.

So I write again. As I’ve said I was writing before, or dabbling in writing, but hadn’t quite hit on “eyes of the heart” writing. My Journey with God. I was only seeing with the eyes on my face…and if that is all I am capable of seeing with, I might as well be blind. If I was concentrating on writing fiction it may be different…I may have gotten away with it, as most of our fictional stories all have a bit of truth in them. That’s not good enough, though. My wants in writing have become to put on paper what God wants me to, so I’ll stick with non fiction…*Atheist opinions may vary. Guess that was a little off topic, but I have a way of making short stories long. 🙂

The hardest part I’ve found, so far, is cleaning out the gunk, cobwebs and debris from past hurts. I recently asked God to dig up (and heal) my heart as it has needed renovation and renewing for far too long. He came to heal the brokenhearted. There’s a lot of messiness there and so many things, scary things, things clowns that live in the sewer system are scared of I had stuffed down for so long and put to death…or so I thought. But as good of a God as He is.. as loving and compassionate as He is, He cannot and will not let us stay there. If you aren’t operating from the heart, you are among the walking dead. He is taking me back to the beginning to begin healing. He is not a half hearted God. He won’t stop at halfway, because halfway healed is still broken. He wants our true selves.. That isn’t to say He can’t use us otherwise, but He knows and loves us, but not the earthly versions of us we pretend to be. He wants the person He created before we were born. That is who He needs us to be. And thank Him for not quitting on us until we’ve become that person.

We all have a story of woundedness, yet if we don’t ever meet it head on and heal from it, we will most likely operate from that woundedness until we do. And so many people never do… I don’t want to be one of those people. My story isn’t unlike many, many others. A boy waits patiently for his father to come home when he’s two years old which becomes three which becomes five, then ten, then becomes he’ll never come for me, which becomes no one will ever come for me, and that’s where the boy learns to live out of. A girl waits her entire life time to hear her mother say “I love you” one time…. just one time, and that one time never comes and now her mother is no more, and she’s still waiting for words she’ll never hear. And that is where she learns to live out of. An area of pain, hurt and anger… and they both vow to never be in that position again.

So, eventually….once upon a time boy meets girl, they fall in love and they tell each other the words they never heard growing up…and they don’t know what to do with them, or how to process them, so they don’t. They part ways. They could be in each other’s arms in thirty minutes or less, but now they’re strangers. Once everything to each other…now they don’t talk. Hurt people hurt people.

Again, two stories that may not be any different from your own, and there are stories much more horrific than those. The parents who hurt us were once children of parents that wounded them. And most likely, intentionally or not, we have done the same to our children. Now would be a good time for a Bible verse… and I have nothing.

But then again, I do have something. I have everything. I have God and she does, too. That doesn’t mean there will be a happily ever after story between said boy and girl. The journey between them may be over…it may have just a chapter in the story of their journeys to God, but there will be a happily ever after story with God.

But it’s a process. It is always a process and we should always be a work in progress. And my progress is currently in digging up the past and healing. Until recently, I couldn’t tell you much of my life between two and twenty. But the parts I could tell weren’t any worth telling. Not sure if the second twenty something years would be any different. Smiling didn’t happen much and still doesn’t. Yes, I was a class clown and to this day enjoy making others laugh at work, at church, the check out line at the grocery story, at anywhere I go…I try to make others laugh even if I fight back tears while doing so. But I’m not content in staying there…..anymore. For a long time, I’ve been the man at the well. For probably longer than the 38 years it’s been said he was there. Soooo, I think it’s time to pick up my mat and walk…..but mostly talk/write. 🙂

Yet, that’s a scary thought. What are you supposed to do with your new found wellness? Unfortunately, we have curled up in our blankets of brokenness for so long, that we have made a home of it…and it’s not that bad there. Cozy, comfortable and every now and then the sun peeks in the great room between the blinds. It isn’t much, but it’s home…….or is it? Doesn’t look like life and to the full to me. So, everybody…. at the count of three, pick up your mat and walk.

Three.

Okay. Anyone there? Me either….but at least, I haven’t rolled my mat out again. I will continue writing and I will hit the publish button for the first time since July of last year. Hopefully, it’s a little more from the heart, or eyes of the heart and will continue to be. It can be a bit unnerving to hit the publish button without knowing what to expect. Will anyone read it? Does it make any sense? Does anyone care what my version of writing with the eyes of the heart truly is? Do they get it? Do they share the same thoughts? Are their wounds and pain too deep to uncover? Will we say a collective “what’s the use?” and keep trudging through what’s left of life? I hope not.

Hitting the publish button under any circumstances can be a daunting task, and it is with an odd mixture of pride, fear, humility, laughter, uncertainty, trepidation, etc and the underlying thought of “I hope I don’t scare them all away” as I move towards doing so. This is an attempt at seeing everything… you, me, the broken boy and girl, the homeless man pushing his overloaded cart towards the underpass to sleep on a cold night, the wealthy man cutting you off in his vehicle that cost more than your house with the eyes of my heart. We’ve all been wounded and scarred (and scared) at some point in our lives, and somehow find a way to live out of these places. Some with nothing. Some with everything (or so they think), because things are just things. They don’t make us complete. Only God can do that. There is an empty spot in all of us only He can fill. If only we would let Him.

Let Him. I’m kinda talking to you there, but talking to myself more. This is me and I hope some of you like it. This is who I am without the mask. I hope to write more from the heart, until I find myself no longer needing to wear one. God wants us as our true self and loves us enough to not let us remain behind the masks. He wants our tears, and sweat and snot and bloodied, bleary eyed and brokenness, the lost and long forgotten hopes and dreams, the absolute worse as in the vow, for better or worse, He wants us. So that He can heal us. Again, it’s life and to the full. He came to bind up the brokenhearted. Let Him…. see above. Kinda talking to myself again.

Back to the boy and girl story…still no happy ever after. It actually reminds me a little of Romeo and Juliet. No, we weren’t star crossed lovers, but were very good for each other. But the same things that brought us together were the same things that eventually tore us apart with all the unhealed damage we brought (from other people and our pasts) to our relationship. Heal! Get well! Don’t use your hurt to hurt others. There are resources available….and I don’t mean self-help. You can’t self help your way out of this. Find a Christian centered therapist, a friend, your pastor or a church worker that can steer you towards the right people. Try more than one, if nothing seems to be happening with the first or second or third one. Pray, pray and pray more. Turn to God. Open the door… for His sake, open the door!!

Back to Romeo and Juliet…..sort of. They ended up dying way too young and needlessly. I think. It’s Shakespeare. I only read it because I had to over 40’something years ago. YAWN!! Anyway, it was a tragic ending to their young lives. Dying once cannot be an easy thing to do, but I have to assume it’s better than dying every day for the rest of your life… Get well. It’s time we all learned to see with the eyes of our heart. It’s a beautiful, messed up world we live in. Rejoice and be glad in it. I say again, rejoice!

Start Today

I’m not fond of some of the more popular and often used (overused) sayings, such as, it is what it is. Because to me, “it” doesn’t have to be what it is. It can be changed. You can be changed. It isn’t what it is. Another non favorite: Today is the first day of the rest of your life. I understand the meaning and intention of the saying. That yesterday is the past. That by the time I get to the end of this blog, what I’m typing now will be in the past. But after roughly 23,000 first days of the rest of my life, I feel some disappointment at all the things I haven’t accomplished yet… and, to be honest, a little bit tired. But if you are still here and breathing, tired or not, you still have time. All we have is today. This minute, this hour, this day of your life is all you will ever have. Make the most of it. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never get here.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself…” – Matthew 6:34

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. – James 4:14

It is a moment of light surrounded on all sides by darkness and oblivion. In the entire history of the universe, let alone in your own history, there has never been another just like it and there will never be another just like it again. It is the point to which all your yesterdays have been leading since the hour of your birth. It is the point from which all your tomorrows will proceed until the hour of your death. If you were aware of how precious it is, you could hardly live through it. Unless you are aware of how precious it is, you can hardly be said to be living at all. “Rejoice and be glad in it” or weep and be sad in it. The point is to see it for what it is, because it will be gone before you know it. If you waste it, it is your life that you’re wasting. If you look the other way, it may be the moment you’ve been waiting for always that you’re missing. All other days have either disappeared into darkness or not yet emerged from it. Today is the only day there is. – Frederick Buechner

So there it is. Two well known verses followed by one lesser known quote all stating the same thing. TODAY IS ALL THERE IS!! Live in it! Rejoice and be glad in it! Yes, be smart and plan for tomorrow, but in the meantime don’t forget to live today. If you’ve forgotten up to this point to really live your life… Start Today! Whatever it is, big or small. Big, if you’re ready, or start small if you need a moment to re-adjust your sails. Choose happiness, joy, laughter, compassion. Choose to write the book, change jobs, go back to school. I hear you saying, but I’ll be thirty or forty or fifty by the time I finish school, write a book, etc, etc, etc….. but God willing, whether you do those things or not, you’re going to be thirty or forty or fifty anyway. 🙂 Start today!

Choose to be the best father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, friend, husband, wife, etc, etc, etc you can be! Take baby steps outside your comfort zones. Renew the relationship/s… and if this wasn’t titled Start Today, start yesterday!! It is important. You are important! Your life is important! Make the phone call. Fill out the application. Take the first step. Listen for the still, small voice and follow. Every single day make the choice to follow. Plot your day and life… Be intentional. Pray, Listen, Obey and Trust = PLOT. Macmillan dictionary defines plot as a series of events that make up the main story in a book, movie, etc. But aren’t you a character in a story? Aren’t you the main character in your story? Pay attention to your story… pay attention to your life.

Pray

Don’t start your day without it. Find a quiet place to get alone with God. Even if it’s only five minutes to start.. or four, or three minutes at first, the time isn’t important. The conversation with God is. Be honest and open and truthful…because, news flash, He knows what you’re going to say anyway. Speak your heart, then..

Listen

Really listen. If you have only the previously mentioned five minutes to pray, or maybe even ten minutes, pray for half that time, then listen. Pray speak, Lord, for your servant is listening… and then listen. He will speak to you. Speaking from experience, I find I’ll spend my alone time with God praying, venting, griping for a few minutes every day before work, but don’t leave enough time to listen. I still need to let the dogs out, get my lunch together, teeth brushed, dressed for work as work prefers me to show up dressed… I get caught up in the busyness of my day to get on the road before rush hour begins. And to be honest, I think sometimes that is intentional on my part. Maybe God will tell me things I’m not ready to hear or don’t want to hear yet. Maybe God is silent, because I still haven’t acted on the last thing He told me to do. So I’m still learning to be more intentional and diligent about praying and listening and now it’s time to…

Obey

Just like listening, this is something I definitely need to work on. Don’t get me wrong.. I do obey………………eventually. The funny thing is, I know I need to obey when hearing God speak to me. Not so funny is how long it sometimes takes me to respond. For the really big, BIG things you’re hearing from God, I think it’s okay to wait a day or two and keep praying about it until you find and feel peace. The peace of God. The peace of Christ. A peace that surpasses all understanding kind of peace. Then step out in faith. Make that first small step and then another and then another. God will guide your path. It’s a promise.

“You will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.'” – Isaiah 30:21

In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. – Proverbs 3:6

“And the Lord will guide you always…” – Isaiah 58:11

So pray, listen and obey, then…

Trust

Just when I think it’s going to get easier, this shows up. For as long as I’ve been a Christian or profess to be, trusting God has always been tough for me. I know He’s God. I know He is faithful and keeps His promises to us whether we are deserving or not. The deserving or not may lead to a delay as we are being guided on our journey. His will and His timing. Keep your faith because He is faithful and He is a good, good father.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. – Proverbs 3:5

Sounds easy enough when considering how often my own understanding has let me down. Hebrews 10:23 and Romans 4:20-21 are what I strive for.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we prefess, for He who promised is faithful. – Hebrews 10:23
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. – Romans 4:20-21

Yet I swerve and I waver… I believe Lord, forgive my unbelief. I am thankful and grateful for everything God has given me and for waking up to a new day tomorrow for as many tomorrows as He allows. But for all my doubts and fears and problems that I lay at His feet, I don’t make it out of the parking lot before I’m back at His feet picking up half of what I laid down five minutes earlier. I feel a little like Noah working on the ark while staring at the desert. Or maybe like Elijah looking for a cloud after praying not just for seven times, but seven times for seven straight days… and still no cloud . Forgive my unbelief. Give everything to God. Put away your pride and ego, and come humbly before Him. He knows what He’s doing, and if you take the time to remember all He has done for you up to now, you will also remember to trust Him… with all your heart. He knows the plans He has for you. Trust Him.

#Pray #Listen #Obey #Trust

After reading back through what’s up there ^^^^, I do believe this is two, two, two blogs in one. I should try and tie them together to make one point, but I’m guessing I would probably add a third instead. The closest I can get is to say, be intentional with your life. Again… fill out the application (job/college/etc)… pick up the phone. With trembling hands dial the number and with your trembling voice, say, “Hello, I’ve been thinking of you.” And see what happens. See what God does. He is a big, BIG God that does big, BIG things… we call them miracles and He’s been doing them forever. As scared as you are to make that call, they may be just as scared that they’ll never hear your voice again. Put away your pride. Pray and listen. Obey and trust.

Going to wrap this up with another quote/paragraph from Buechner …

You are seeing everything for the last time, and everything you see is gilded with goodbyes. The child’s hand like a starfish on the pillow, your hand on the doorknob. Caught between screen and window, a wasp unfolds one wing. With a sick smile, guilt-ridden, the old dachshund lurches off the forbidden couch when you come through the door, his nose dry with sleep, and makes for the pillow by the hot-air register. It is the room where for years Christmases have happened, snow falling so thick by the window that sometimes it has started to snow in the room, brightness falling on tables, books, chairs, the gaudy tree in the corner, a family sitting there snowmen, snowbound, snowblind to the crazy passing of what they think will never pass. And today now everything will pass because it is the last day. For the last time you are seeing this rain fall and in your mind that snow, this child asleep, this cat. For the last time you are hearing this house come alive because you who are part of its life have come alive. All the unkept promises if they are ever to be kept have to be kept today. All the unspoken words if you do not speak them today will never be spoken. The people, the ones you love and the ones who bore you to death, all the life you have in you to live with them, if you do not live it with them today will never be lived.

It is the first day because it has never been before and the last day because it will never be again. Be alive if you can all through this day today of your life. What’s to be done? What’s to be done?

Follow your feet. Put on the coffee. Start the orange juice, the bacon, the toast….wake up your children and your wife. Think about the work of your hands… Live in the needs of the day. – F. Buechner

That’s it. Live in the needs of the day. Find the people you can’t live without and be with them. Put down the phones. Turn off the TV. Look into their eyes. Hug them. Talk about things that matter. Talk about nonsense. Have fun and be fun. Laugh and love and be present in all that you do.

Everything really is gilded with goodbyes. Tomorrow may not come for someone you love dearly. Tomorrow may not come for you. Make every moment count. Maybe not in a sky diving, 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu kinda way, but make them count. Every moment is so very special. Tonight, you’re reading them Goodnight Moon before tucking them in. Tomorrow they’re off to Little League. Next week is teaching them to drive followed closely by graduation and college. You’ll shake your head and swear they smell worse coming out of the shower than before they went in.. But you’ll still miss it. You wake up one day and that tiny gray speck that was in your beard yesterday turned into a headful of white hair seemingly overnight…. or maybe even a bald head where white hair used to be. Eighteen years gone in the blink of an eye.

We are here and then we’re gone. We are a mist, a vapor, a breathe, dust.. and to dust we shall return. We have a much, much better place to go to when our time on Earth is through. Yes, as Billy Graham said, we will be more alive than we’ve ever been on that day, but in the meantime, we have life now! How about we practice some of that on Earth as it is in Heaven thing. Keep those promises. Speak the words. Live your life. Open your mind to the possibilities. Unclench your fists, open your hands and your heart. Receive all God has planned for you. It’s closer than you think. And He’s a lot closer than you think.

“…Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” – Deuteronomy 31:6
“…Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And do everything with love. – 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. God will never leave you. Do everything in love… and start today. 🙂

Love is…pt. 1

 

Good Friday aka The Greatest Love of All

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. – John 15:15

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. – John 15:13

I don’t know what I can say about love that hasn’t been said in those three verses. God gave us His one and only Son so that we can have a relationship with Him. As the song goes, He is a good, good Father. A firm but fair Father…and our friend.

God desires a relationship with us…each and every one of us, sinner or saint. Even though we may sometimes qualify as saints, we are still sinners. AND HE STILL LOVES US!! He knows each and every one of us, heart and soul. The good, the bad and the sometimes ugly, AND HE STILL LOVES US!

He created each and every one of us to have a relationship with Him. There are currently over 7 billion people on earth and only He knows how many more there have been for thousands of years now and He has always desired a relationship with each and every one of us. The Webster’s definition of desire says “to long or hope for”… God longs for you and He wants all of you…again, Heart and Soul. All in and nothing less.

How many of us would offer up our sons or daughters even knowing how the story would play out? Not sure I would do it. Have you seen how we behave? Although we all have good/great moments daily, we are more prone to bouts of rudeness, impatience, meanness, spitefulness, sadness, anger, etc, etc, etc. Not exactly Fruits of the Spirit stuff and God gave His ONE AND ONLY SON for us… Sounds like love to me. Shouldn’t we all strive to love Him the same way?? After all, He laid down His life for His friends…. Us.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” – Matthew 22:37-38
And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:39-40

Love is very important to God and the greatest gift He could give us, that we could give Him, and that we should do our very best to give to others. We love because He first loved us. So, if it’s that important to God, it is also important to me. Having said that, I have more trouble with the second commandment up there than the first. However, my trouble with the second prevents me from completely fulfilling the first. I can’t remember who said it, but I have read that loving your neighbor as yourself is a horrible commandment if you don’t love yourself. I don’t love myself and I know I’m not alone. I actually like my neighbor more than I like myself and he can be an a**hole at times. So what does that say about me. 🙂 I have begun to like myself though and am working on the love part. I do love God but don’t yet feel like it is with ALL my heart, mind and soul….yet. And I have found when God says all…. He means ALL!!

Exhibit A and I don’t really need a B.
Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in ALL your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6

In all your ways. With all your heart. With all your soul. With all your mind. All means ALL, y’all.

Part 2

God is Love. It says so in the Bible so it has to be true.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. – 1 John 4:8
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. – 1 John 4:16

See?!?! Right there in writing twice in the same chapter. God is love. End of story…. but is it really? No. There is more. I haven’t even started with 1 Corinthians 13. So now I shall and all I’m going to do is replace the word love with God.

God is patient, God is kind. God does not envy, does not boast, is not proud. God does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered. God keeps no record of wrongs (If you confess them). God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians 13:13. And remember… God is Love.

This may be good theology or bad theology or no theology at all but it makes me feel a whole lot better about things. God loves us.  God cares.  Nothing will ever separate us from His love…other than ourselves.  He has loved us with an everlasting love; with unfailing love He draws us to Himself.  He stands at the door and knocks… Don’t you think it’s time to let Him in?  I do.

I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. – Revelation 3:20

There’s the word friends again.  He wants friendship with us.  All in.  Open your hearts and let Him in.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have God, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have God, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have God, I gain nothing. – 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

There it is.  Without God and without love, we are nothing. Don’t look at me…It’s not me saying that…it says so right up there. ^^^^ I don’t want to get to the end of my life and hear “I never knew you.” I want to hear “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” That is my goal.

Now having said and shared this, what am I (or are we) to do with it? Lofty goals for humans as we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are to strive to be more like Jesus, but we will fail…daily. But I do want to be more like Christ today than I was yesterday and God willing, even a better version of myself tomorrow. So even though Good Friday wasn’t necessarily a “good” day when it was happening, it turned out to be the very best gift God could have given us……Himself.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. – James 1:17

Father in heaven, I thank you for today and every day of life. I thank you for your love and for giving your Son for me so that I shall live. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Have a great Easter, everyone. 🙂