Places in the Heart

I had all the thoughts and the words ready to go. I knew just what I was going to share with you today... and then I got slapped in the face by a couple things on social media.

The first was a post by a nurse, a COVID unit nurse, who laid her emotions raw and bare on the page about having to give the news once again to an elderly patient that the doctors were going to have to intubate. She knew it was likely this sweet gentleman would not make it through the ordeal, and asked if there was anyone he wanted to call and talk to before being put on the ventilator. She wrote about how she cries, how she prays for her patients, how it's so horrible that the last human beings these poor people see are not their loved ones, but the gowned, gloved, faceless figures of those tending to them.

It was hard to read. I wanted an escape, a chance for the growing lump in my throat to settle down. I did some blog hopping. It was the mindless break I needed. It was all decorating advice and "pretty squares" on Instagram until I went down a few rabbit holes that led me to a woman telling her story about her husband's fifteen year battle with terminal cancer. She was blunt. She told it like it was, and all of this... this early Friday morning... was evoking a real and visceral reaction in me that I could not shake. The lump in my throat was back.

What I was going to share this morning... the thing I was going to talk about seemed too much in conflict with the reality of what I had already encountered.

I paused.

I thought about it.

I think it still makes sense. Even amidst the tragic and the sad...perhaps especially because of them... it makes sense, at least it does for me. Maybe it will for you too. So here we go again.

"Places in the Heart"

I have always been fascinated by the heart's capacity to love. There is no fixed or finite point at which the heart would ever signal, "TILT, TILT. OVERLOAD. YOU HAVE EXCEEDED YOUR LIMIT" No. The heart is elastic. The more that love is exercised, the more the heart grows.

I have been fortunate to get to spend time this summer with my grandson, Ben. We do a lot of laughing and playing, and just goofing off in general. Under his direction I have "walked the plank" of the fireplace hearth and have squeezed myself into a two by five foot "hidden cave" between the loveseat and the wall. We have pirate-ed, spelunked, and treasure hunted to our heart's content. We read his favorite Bible story over and over during lunch time with him filling in the parts he likes best. My love for Ben grows deeper every day, though I thought my heart was as full as it could get when he, our first grandbaby, was born.

This next week I have the pleasure of spending some time with Flint and Wade, two more of our grandsons. It will be the first time I meet Wade formally. I'm thrilled to death to get to see them too. I'm sure this week will be just as full of cool adventures with the Flintster. He loves to read books. He likes to "ride horses." Who knows what we may get into... I'll guarantee you this, I'm gonna love every minute of it. My love for Flint grows deeper every day also, and I thought I could not love him more than the day he came into our lives. In fact, I have a little love affair goin' on with Wade-eo too, and I haven't even held him yet. Such is the ability of the human heart to love.

My parents were the first people I adored. My six-year-old self thought my heart was full and complete, but then one day I met Tom, and my heart grew. It was the same... and yet it was different. There were places in my heart reserved for my mom and dad. Tom didn't take over one of the existing spaces, the two places became three, yet not one of them was pushed out or crowded. I wouldn't say there was just as much love there as before, because actually, there was more.

I thought my heart was full and complete until the day I met my son and cradled him in my arms. My heart grew again. It was the same... and yet it was different. The three places became four, and still there was a place for each and every one of them. The love wasn't divided, it was mutiplied. That's the way it has been with each of our four children, with their spouses, and now with our three grandchildren. More and more places are being added to my heart as the years pass. Close friends and family, past, present... and future will always take up residence there. Not a one will ever be lost. Not a one will ever be replaced.

For me this is a kind of beautiful representation of God's love for each and every one of His children. His capacity to love is PERFECTLY infinite. He has place after place after place, on and on for His beloved. Each one of us is so incredibly special to Him. We matter. His heart has grown with every life He has ever formed into being. It makes me want to tear up just thinking about it.

We are blessed to have a God who loves us so much... who loved us enough to sacrifice His own Son for our salvation. Nothing could ever say how much we matter to God more than that. Because of the love He has for us, and because we were created in His image, He has also gifted US with the capcity to love others... family, friends, neighbors... strangers.

This morning I came face-to-face with the reality of a few strangers, the reality that life is hard, and sad, and often unfair. The reality that people, all over, are going through incredible times of stress and difficulty. That individuals are sick and dying. That families are separated from one another. That people are losing jobs and wondering how and when they will ever be able to get back to some sense of normalcy.

It is plain to see why God has given us the capacity to love. He has built into our hearts as well, the kind of empathy and compassion that causes a lump to form in our throats whenever we come across someone hurting or struggling. He has gifted us with hearts that not only value OUR beloved, but that are capable also of valuing HIS. He has created within us hearts that seek to right those wronged, to heal those hurt, to lift those fallen, to hug those lonely, and to embrace those dejected.

Let's not waste a single minute of loving... loving on those who are near and dear to us.... and loving on those who simply need it. Life is short. Times are uncertain. Let's be thankful for today, and let's reach out. We never have to worry about exceeding our heart's limit. There will always be love and places enough, because HIS love is limitless... and He has ensured that ours, in and through Him, is limitless too.