Love Dwelling in and Around Us

1 John 4 tells us, "If we love one another, God dwells in us and his love is perfected in us. This is how we know that we dwell in him and he in us."

I spent the month on a speaking assignment talking about the love of Christ - how it's surprising and reliable, how it's caring and powerful, how it's expansive and how it's ours. I deeply believe it- that the Trinity has had a dance of love going on between them since before the beginning of time, and we are invited into that dance. That the greatest commandments to love God and to love others are natural outflows of the love God pours into us, and of the Holy Spirit residing in our hearts. God's love dwells in us and around us.

And then I had a chance to live that truth. The second to last day I got hurt. I thought I sprained my foot, and continued to walk on it and try to go about things as normally as possible, but then the x-ray showed a dislocation and the doctor said I could no longer bear weight on it altogether.

We were in Missouri, in the mountains, nearly twelve hours away from home. I had both kids, and my husband was working back home, so I also had a wonderful nanny there with us. But she had severe vertigo from sitting on a floating dock earlier that week. Suddenly neither of us were capable of lifting my 18 month old, or of driving. And we were supposed to drive home the next day.

I sat on the hospital bed trying to think and pray about what to do. But I didn't need to. I've written before about the way moms (and dads!) seem to have a supernatural capacity to spring into action when someone is in need. And this was no exception. Two families on assignment with us had already taken my kids for the night, and not only were they having a ball, I was getting photo updates by text every 30 minutes so that I didn't miss a beat of their adventures that evening (there was a big storm with 60 MPH wind at the property where we were staying so it turned into quite the night!). Work offered to fly my husband out to drive us home, and he didn't hesitate for a second to cancel his plans and head our way (though he did check in with me first to make sure that I thought that was the best plan- he is so good about respecting my ability to problem solve and make my own decisions, instead of making decisions for me or assuming I need to be rescued and I'm so thankful for that). We had to ship five boxes home to make room for another adult in the car because it was packed full, but that we could do.

An intern picked me up from the ER where I'd gotten x-rays at about midnight and drove me an hour back to where we were staying. A friend up late with a nursing baby listened to me vent via text and got me laughing when I needed it most so that I could process everything enough to finally rest and get some sleep. Two co-workers spent the next morning making sure not only were logistics covered, but that my heart was at peace about everything. I was feeling pretty overwhelmed and they met me where I was with listening, kindness, compassion and gentle encouragement that things were going to be okay.

A few other friends and coworkers covered things on my agenda to do by foot that morning. By noon, I went in to give my final talk, this time sitting on a stool instead of standing. But as I opened my mouth to share with a few hundred people about the greatest commandments, and dwelling in God's love, it flowed right out of my heart because I was living it. God's love was dwelling all around me and my family through the hands and feet of the body of Christ. What an opportunity for us all to practice what we preached, and I'm so thankful they practiced on me. Sometimes things really are as good as they seem, or even as good as someone says they are, and the love of God in and through these new friends was just that.