Nature has always been a place of peace and contentedness for me. Driving out to the mountains, feeling the cold crisp air through the open car windows, blasting folk rock bands like Fleet foxes and Lord Huron, mmm nothing beats it. My soul throughout my childhood was drawn to the magic of the Blue ridge mountains. There was something about the solitude, and the heightened sense of companionship that is created with the people you take with you. Nature for me has always been a direct way to connect to the Father. I remember being in Boy Scouts and going on my first camping retreat to a place called “Hog camp Gap” in the mountains of Virginia, and not wanting to go at first. I complained, even cried, and tried to get out of it with my parents. However my Father insisted that I should go, and so I went. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my childhood, but also with deepening my sense of wonder of creation and the Creator. I remember stepping out of the car when we reached our campsite and looking upward at the sky. What a saw stunned me and made me feel a certain feeling I longed to capture. For the first time in my life I saw the Milky Way galaxy, and in all of its wonder and color. It made me feel so small, yet so alive, in the very sense that when I recognized my size in the Universe, it lit a passion in my heart to love as much as possible. To never take a moment for granted with the people I love and the moments which are gifted to me in this life. It still floors me today in memory, because when I see the Milky way, I am overcome in awe that the Creator of such vastness, of such beauty, and chaos in Space, also created a beautiful planet that sustains life and finally – created me. A creator who loves me, who desires to have a relationship with me, and even though He is perfect, beautiful, pure, still came to his creation in our form and bore a gruesome death upon a cross. Why? For our souls. For our freedom. For our chance to truly live in freedom and in identity with God. The one motive out of it all, out of Jesus’s heart was love.
In memory love is found everywhere. In old friends and new, in pictures and in songs, in the milky way, in the trees, in your favorite music or favorite coffee. Love is there, because your soul is there. A revelation occured to me the other night reflecting on my own heart and the way memory and love and recognizing the hand of God at work in my life were all intertwined. Looking back into memory, looking back at my old self, I see times where love really was seen, and moments where it lacked. I realized that my love was meant to always be intentional. For we are called to love intentionally, and when we do our souls are filled with purpose, beauty, and a deep relationship to Jesus. Intentionally loving in order to be joyful. Intentionally being joyful to spread love. Intentionally spreading love to bring people to Jesus, and the spirit dwelling within their own hearts.
So my revelation has been that in everything, His love is present. In every leaf, in every song I adore, in every space of this earth His presence is overflowing with love. All I have to do is turn back to Him, to spend time with my soul and give in to the wonder of His love for me. When I do take the time and the care to love myself and care about my soul’s well being, I find myself closer to the Father, and closer to this love that is so rare, unconditional, and freeing.
The good news is that this freedom is available to everyone. The same Creator of the Milky way, your latte, and your favorite music, desires deeply to have a relationship with us. His love desires us to be happy, strong, and living out of a sense of victory and freedom from our Souls. His plan for our hearts is love. What a beautiful truth to grasp, and a huge call on our lives to live intentionally, with Jesus as our home and identity.
“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.”
Psalm 143: 8
