looking through me

Tag: love

expected gift (in the living)

Five months and nine days—one hundred sixty-two days—after saying goodbye to Grandma we say hello to the newest member of the family: a baby girl.

This is life. In the goings and the comings. In the goodbyes and the hellos. Always dynamic, never static.

Welcome to the world, Baby Girl.

You are ours and we are yours. We’ve been waiting and praying for you longer than you’ll ever understand. Without you we weren’t complete—we may have thought we were, but we were not. That’s the beauty of this family. We long for the presence of each one. And now you are here, with us.

We will disappoint you and confuse you and frustrate you, but even in those moments I pray you will know how deeply loved you are. Because we have loved you, we do love you and we will love you. Period. You are loved. It’s a beautiful non-negotiable. It won’t be perfect—not a one of us is—but it will be constant.

It’s a great, big, scary, wonderful world you’ve entered. And I can’t wait to help carry you into it in our embrace.

Happy Birth, Baby Girl.

Love,
Aunt Kristen

 

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love

Love.

Love steps up and steps in. Love is present.

Love is Dad holding my hair out of my face while the flu empties my stomach.

Love is the eldest carrying me down a dusty mountain road.

Love is the middle driving 275 miles so I won’t be alone in the desert on my birthday.

Love is Mom waking up early to bake my favorite coffee cake for every special occasion.

Love walks alongside. Love joins in. Love gets messy. Love sacrifices. Love stays.

Love lives in the action verbs.

Interesting . . . love has yet to speak. It can. It does. But words are trivial if not anchored in action.

God is love. Jesus—God with us—the Word made flesh came as love incarnate. Jesus loved when He wept—when He grieved the loss of His friend—just as much as He loved when He restored life and removed the reason to mourn. Love cried. Love worked. The Word is love. The Word is life. Words of love are words of life.

The affirmation spoken out of life-tested relationship: love.

The note to the friend far away: love.

The shared meal: love

Showing up to the wedding, the funeral, the everyday: love.

The doing, the being, the speaking—all of it—spills love into life. The memories of love may have a soundtrack or be silent, but they have action shot after action shot after action shot.

Love is present. Love is active. Love does.

God does. God is active. God is present.

 

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