God is everything, literally everything. He is everything that we see and everything we do not see. God is fear, God is love, God is Jesus and the Holy Spirit. God is three-in-one. God is above, below and in between. God is fierce, perfect and relentless. Jesus is someone that is difficult to describe let alone imitate. Although I know the Lord well through years of personal experience that involved unimaginable joy and unfathomable pain, I still forget sometimes. What I forget most I think, is not that He loves me, a love like that is not something I could ignore if I tried and trust me, I have tried because I do not deserve love that is larger than life. What I forget is the degree of His love, I forget the level of intensity that the Lord loves me. I forget the severity of His love. I forget that the love of Christ is limitless. I forget that His love for me is unconditional. I forget that His judgment on me is not done without love. I forget that Jesus meant what He said and He said what He meant, in all of scripture, including my favorite verse.
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”-Hebrews 13:5
I may forget that I have the love we were all created to receive but God is good. God is so good in fact, He gave me a walking reminder that is with me every single day. His name is Teva and he is love on four legs.
He has been with me through more moments than most. He has been there through a few too many terrifying car accidents along with a few too many tattoos. He’s been there during great days that turned into awful nights and awful days that turned into great nights. He’s been with me on anxious elevator rides, lonely car drives and through every silent night. He’s been there when I breakdown in stairwells and he dances with me when I play music in the morning. He is my Service Dog, my friend, my happy little shadow. He is my reminder. He is a reflection of the love God has for me. If people are too intimidated to be like Jesus, then let us be like dogs, it’s the same example on a smaller scale. Live without judgment, love without condition and remain unceasingly faithful.
If people are too intimidated to be like Jesus, then let us be like dogs, it’s the same example on a smaller scale. Live without judgment, love without condition and remain unceasingly faithful.-Genevieve Rose
Harry Harlow did this experiment with monkeys in the 50’s that had to do with love. Harry Harlow wanted to see if baby monkeys would prefer a mother made of cloth over a mother made of wire, even if the wire mother was the only one that offered food. Harry Harlow did several tests on these monkeys to see just how much love matters. Harry Harlow deprived them of comfort. Harry Harlow left the monkeys all alone. Harry Harlow scared those monkeys to see who they would run to, the mother with food or the mother with comfort. It isn’t necessary to keep stating the scientist’s full name but I very much enjoy the alliteration. See what Harry Harlow did for yourself.
I’m not much for science but like anything I learn, if I can connect it to a part of my life, I remember it well. To clarify, I don’t spend my free time looking up science experiments that would be totally illegal today. Right now, I spend my free time looking up details about Michael Jackson who was much more wonderful than the world ever gave him credit for. I learned about Harry Harlow and his monkeys for a psychology course which immediately made me think of the time I had been a wire mother to the creature that I now love the most.
“What happened to the monkeys?” I asked, after we had seen the clip of obvious sadness and anguish endured by those adorable little fuzz balls. “Did someone ever love them?” Watching anything suffer breaks my heart.
“That’s the way they did things back then.” I didn’t like the thought of even the possibility that those baby monkeys might have never been held. Many things are too sad to contemplate.
“You know, when I first got Teva I didn’t love him.”
“Really?” My professor said with a gasp, rightfully so because he was made to love and be loved.
“Yes” I said, “my first Service Dog had just died when I got Teva so it was hard, to love him. It was hard.”
“I’m sorry” she said.
“Thank you, it was tragic.” Other than my heart, the only reminder I carry of him these days is in ink. “He needed love. You could see it. He was sad.”
“Exactly,” my professor said “like the monkeys.”
“Yes, if not for love I think he would’ve just shriveled up and died.”
“How wonderful it is that you can connect it to something like that.” She said, as we walked toward the parking lot together.
“That’s how I remember” I said, “everything needs love.”
Mindless Peace 