Your Ocean of Love

                “My Lord, my God, my loving Creator, I humbly bow my head and ask what I can do to show my love for You today. Love my neighbors? Love them all - broken and healed, lost and found, weak and strong, humble and proud. They are all Your people and they all have You inside them. You created them all in Your likeness so I must love them all as Your creations.

                “Many have distorted the image You created by the lives they have led and the choices they have made. So many of these choices are the same ones made for the same reasons over centuries and centuries of time. Our human weaknesses and tendencies are the same throughout history. The way we play out the choices changes due to the changing environment and changing world we live in, but the motivations and underlying reasons for what we do remain the same from the beginning of time – pride, self love, and a warped sense of who we are.

                “We need to remember, as all man has needed to be reminded throughout history, that You created us, You are all powerful and above all, You created us out of love in order to love and be loved. We need to stay focused on loving You instead of clinging to that love just for ourselves. The love You give is dynamic and meant to flow back and forth between us and You and all those around us as it flows between You and the Father and the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t just flow one way or stay within one, it flows and moves and grows and transforms everything it touches. It never remains the same. Love is meant to grow and share. It is not measurable, containable, or controllable. It is a living moving force like the ocean waves that constantly move, grow, go back on themselves, gain power and crash in different places without ceasing.

                “I close my eyes and I can feel the sand beneath my feet. I feel the spray of the cool ocean air on my face. I smell the refreshing salty air. I hear the waves turning and folding over onto themselves. The foam hisses and the wave melts into the shore. Lord I melt into You. You love is like the ocean, vast and all encompassing. Your mercy engulfs me in all my imperfections and makes me one with the ocean like a drop of water falling into the shore. The foam surrounds me. I am purified as the waves crash onto the sand and then I am pulled out into the current, into the vast depths of Your love.

                “Oh dear Lord, show me how to call all Your people to swim in this ocean. Send me the grace I need to love everyone as You do; to shows them the way to the shore. May they see my love for You and for Your people and may it inspire them to jump in the water. Some may only let the water touch their toes at first but I pray that they will soon jump in completely, the way a little child jumps into the water. May the waves of love and mercy flow over us all without ceasing, cleansing us of the human weaknesses and imperfections that have plagued us throughout history. May the ocean waves wash off the sand that covers our shining skin. May we be made clean in Your mercy and then be made one with Your ocean of love.

                “Oh Lord, I hear the gentle crash of the waves and the hiss of the foam calling to me. I feel the warm sun on my face and the sand under my toes. Lord, I want to run into the water with all humanity by my side.”