Nurture and Grow Love.

Nurture and Grow Love. 

This picture was born from the idea that love is delicate, like a flower. As Christians we are called to be a people of  love by Jesus ' love the lord your God with all your mind soul and strength.... love your neighbour as yourself'. 

Love of the kind Jesus describes is quite a fragile thing. I mean its not easy to love the homeless person on the street enough to give him your lunch or to love the person who has somehow pushed in front of you in a queue. we are called to love because it is the closest thing to Godliness we get on this planet. I have discovered that you need to nurture and grow a culture of love. It is not easy to make love intrinsically part of who you are. It involves the changing of habits and growing in so many ways- it involves being who God created you to be. I believe that we are called to make love our default position, to make it an automatic response.

Problem is the kind of love we are called to is not the kind of love that merits return it is Agape unconditional love. From what I remember of RS at school ( that was a long time ago!) In ( possibly ancient) Greek the word love has 4 different meanings there is Phillia which is the superlative of like for example I love Chocolate  means that I like all other sweets but I love chocolate, it is usually used to describe the love of some thing and is the origin of words like bibleophile ( book lover). Then there is Eros the romantic love that is shared between two people in a committed relationship. There is Xenia which is hospitality/ service and there is Agape. Agape is the love of a family member or friend it is selfless and truly giving.  The latter two is what we as Christians are called to be in our character.

So in the picture I tried to draw/paint the  nature of our love, That it takes care to nurture but it is delicate like a flower.  We shouldn't hesitate to care for our habits that are rooted in love because they are what makes us grow.

Sink your roots into God's love. 

So leading on from those thoughts this picture takes the passage 

I also pray that love may be the ground into which you sink your roots and on which you  have your foundation.' Ephesians 3:17b GWT

The idea of us having roots from our feet sinking into God's love was the predominant image I got from reading this passage, as I meditated upon it I realised that I should label the roots Faith, Grace, trust, peace, wisdom and hope.

Then the thought struck me that God's Word and his spirit are the things that we need to use to nurture these roots just like the love picture before. we can't have strong roots and foundations, without their nutrients. That is why they are represented with the water and fertilizer. 

My word for 2012 was roots, this year I have felt that God has been telling me I need to get my roots firmly fixed in his foundation. The passage that has prevailed in my prayer life this year has been Jeremiah 17:7-8

Blessed is the person who trusts the Lord. 

The Lord will be his confidence.

   

 He will be like a tree that  is planted by water.

 It will send its roots down to a stream.

 It will not be afraid in the heat of summer.

 Its leaves will turn green.

 It will not be anxious during droughts.

It will not stop producing fruit. (GWT)

I have a painting for this one that I have done but I can't find a picture of it, it hangs in my office to remind me that whatever I work on it is  for God.