A Perfect Love
Some of the greatest memories I have with my beautiful family are our vacations which included an Amusement Park. The cute kiddie coasters, corn dogs, and paddle boats. Exhilirating, Fun, and Safe at a K5 school level. It was a beautiful world we lived in and enjoyed together.🥰
However, as they got older and taller, and I got wider not wiser, those fantastical moments were traded in for some of the most terrifying moments of my life. Kiddie rides became rides that demanded liability waivers and a "save yourself first" mentality. 😲
Time for some transparency. I do not have superhero mentality. I don't have the desire to stop oncoming trains, break the sound barrier or leap a skyscraper in a single bound. Simply put, I am a "fraidy" cat in the mighty shadows of these death-demanding mechanical engineering monsters. My heart rate increases to unnaturel porportion, my legs lose all bone structure, and I feel like I am trying to breath through a trachea the size of a pea.
So why did I still ride them? Trust me, I wasn't trying to conquer my fears, I would much rather just run from them..LOL...but I wanted my children to believe that their dad was made out of "titanium" and trust me, I truly wished my "shorts" had been after we were done. 😬
Recently I was looking at some pictures that were taken by the Park Camera Systems on some of the Roller Coasters we rode together. The common theme was the two people desperately clutching one another as we descended down heights normally reserved for Angels. 🧚♀️
As I looked at two people clinging on for their dear lives, the Holy Spirit whispered something amazing to me:
Holy Spirit: Do you see it George?
Me: See what Holy Spirit? My fear raging out in front of my children?
Holy Spirit: No George. Not the fear. The love.
Me: What? What are you talking about?
Holy Spirit: Your children were afraid but they grabbed hold of you because in the midst of their fear they grabbed the one person that was willing to sit with them through their fear even though you were afraid too. A perfect love that cast out all their fears just like the perfect love God shows you when He sits with you in the midst of your fears.
Me: Pause...followed by a whole bunch of tears.😂
Wow! In 1 John 4:14-19, explains this wonderful supernatural scenario for us very well: "14 Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. 15 Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. 16 We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God. 17 This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day - our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. 18 There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed perfect love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life - fear of death, fear of judgment - is one not yet fully formed in love. 19 We, though, are going to love - love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love because He loved us first.✝
What a wonderful promise for all of us. A God that loved us so much that He would give up everything He had to save us from not only our sins but the influences of ALL fear, guilt, and shame as well.🔥
In the midst of any fear, remember that you are loved by someone greater than all fears! He is not afraid. In the midst of what feels like a definite descent and defeat grab hold of the God who sits right next to you. Hold tight, and don't look down. Just look into the eyes of the one who loves you and holds onto you with such a powerful embrace that His presence alone will dispel any and all shadows of fear for you.🤗
A PERFECT LOVE FOR YOU, FOR ME, FOR ALL.💗