The kids and I were reading 2 Corinthians 3 this morning. It was so wonderful. For some reason, just thinking about God’s love made the sunshine seem brighter, the skies bluer, and the day more beautiful. I was trying to explain to the kids about “where the Spirit is Lord, there is liberty,” and one thing I thought of is that lovely song Sarah McLachlin sings in Toy Story 2. I know it seems like a strange analogy, but part of the song goes:

When somebody loved me
Everything was beautiful
Every hour we spent together
Lives within my heart

Here’s a video I found of the song. It’s just so lovely.

The great thing is that God’s love is forever, not temporal, like the love of so many people.

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:32-39

People complain that because God “allows” suffering in the world, then He is an ogre, or that this is somehow proof that there is no God. (Yet if God got rid of free will and decided to control people like puppets, these same people would complain that because God was such a control freak, this proved He was an ogre or didn’t exist). But I think that because there IS love in the world, this proves there is a God and that He is real. Sufferings are done by the hand of people, and honestly, is to be expected. The amazing thing to me is that love exists among us yet. I’m not speaking from a charmed life, either. I’ve been through a lot, so I know what suffering is. Corrie ten Boom once said (she was quoting her sister who died in a Nazi concentration camp): No pit is so deep that God is not deeper still.

The very fact that love exists is proof that God exists. But of course, there is much more proof than that besides.

And when I remember that He loves me– even me– everything is beautiful.

It’s Monday! You know what that is! Woooooo!

OK, so maybe I am a little over excited. But I am sitting in the orthodontist’s waiting room, and I have nothing better to do right now! (Thank God for wireless).

If you knew that every minute of the next 24 hours of your life would be recorded on camera is there anything you would change about your habits?

Yeah, like, all of them, lol. No, actually– aren’t ALL our outdoor activities being monitored anyway?! I hate all those creepy cameras at the traffic lights, at WalMart, at the library…. I’ve seen those “reality” videos on TV before, where people agreed to be monitored so experts could watch them and help solve their problems. I’m always amazed at the nasty and yukky things people continue to do even with a camera aimed at them. Me, I’d be nicer, and probably neater. Then again, something might get into me to stick out my tongue and make goofy faces. Depends on how much coffee I’d have had.

If you could take a one-month trip to any single destination in the world and money is not a consideration, where would you go?

This is an easy one, because I’m always dreaming about it. New Zealand. Greenland. New York City. Washington, D.C. And Antartica, just to say I’d been there. Oh nuts. Did that sentence say “single destination”?

What is the best example of “perfection” that you can think of?

Jesus. He’s the finest, most loving person, and I am so not. I read about what He did and what He said and it continues to blow my mind away.

The conqueror Napoleon had said of Jesus, “I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for Him.”

I think it was the late Dr. D. James Kennedy who said that unlike with man, when we gaze closer and closer to inspect Jesus, we become more awed by His exceptional love and virtue; whereas the opposite is true when we closely inspect any man.

This was a good Manic Monday– got me thinking!