Love Is The Answer

My daughter Sarah, runs an animal rescue facility for injured, displaced, and non-releasable animals. She was asked to take in this Amazon parrot by a woman fighting the ravages of cancer.

The woman knew of Sarah’s reputation and dedication to animals and was grateful when he was accepted into her facility.

Sarah provides him with both a large indoor and outdoor aviary, other birds of his kind, toys, and other enrichment to keep his mind sharp and free from boredom, and medical attention specific to his breed.

He has daily interactions with the people he has come to trust and shows his affections for them in bird-like ways. He can fly but chooses not to as he stays close to those who diligently and lovingly care for him. I imagine that somewhere in his bird-mind, he recognizes that he has a good life, trusting in those who provide the things he can’t acquire for himself.

In many ways, we are not so different than him.

We often find ourselves in situations that require more than we can give, and we may even feel unable to sustain the needed effort. Yet as we continue to take care of those around us, the ability comes to us to continue on.

Because there is a power beyond description in trying to live the second greatest commandment: to love our neighbors as ourselves. 

We discover that we are living in a state of Grace.

Constant help from God to do what we can’t possibly accomplish alone. Upheld and sustained by His powerful, omnipotent hand we can continue to increase our capacity to love.

Continue to change so that we might be more like Him.

There is great truth in the words that we can be new creatures in Christ. He can take any one of us and make us new. Not just once, but over and over again. He can peel back the layers of the natural man and refine our understanding of what it means to love in our specific situations.

Tailoring changes in us to fit us for His kingdom. To bring us home to the source of all love.

Little by little, we can let go of old ideas and embrace new light and knowledge. Learn to love better. Learn to be more like Him.

Continue to live in Grace.

That is the promise to them that open their hearts to God.