When I was a young mom, I used to read my children the book “I’ll Love You Forever – I’ll Love You for Always” by Robert Munsch.  It illustrates the life of parent and child and the cycle of life, and how we live out God’s love.

Most parents are familiar with the tiny feet that come running in during the night to hop in bed as a thunder storm rages outside in the dark.  How hugs and reassurance quiets the fears of the unknown.  How the presence and physical “skin” of another means more than just soothing words called out in the night.

Reflecting on Psalm 136 this week, there is the repeating line of “his steadfast love endures forever.”  It reminds me of a promise, a promise that lies between my husband of thirty-two years and that I’ve made to each of our four children and our two “daughters” we have been given over the years.

But there is a promise that Spirit has made with me – one that continues to awaken life, light the darkness, and capture moment after moment of imagination that delights in the movement of days.

The promise brings hope and announces glory in the world.  It threads families together and knits communities into bodies so fragrant with possibilities.

In quieting, we hear the wonder and reflect on life – visions that widen the explorations of who we are and where we are asked to go.  To breathe within our “skin” is to understand God as presence.

When I think of God’s enduring love I am reminded that tomorrow is the 18th birthday of my daughter who passed away when she was a baby. As I reflect on the love that I continue to have for her, Spirit nudges something to be born into the world that creates beauty, something that will move as a love song.

So, if you drive by my house tomorrow, I’ll be out in the yard with my green flowered gardening gloves on, holes in the fingertips, planting eighteen red tulip bulbs.  It will be a “surprise” to my heart as the earth awakens and I see just a tiny bit of creation growing from the earth.  The breath in the tulip bulbs that unfolds in the breeze before my eyes will be the love song I hear within my heart.

“God’s steadfast love endures forever”

Beauty all around us.

Donna