‘The love of Jesus is so wonderful’ – as the song goes – ‘so high you can’t get over it, so low you can’t get under it, so wide you can’t get round it.’

We cannot comprehend that kind of love – a love that has no boundaries – it does not depend on who we are or where we are at, what things we have done, or what we haven’t done, whether we have a financial abundance or not.   It depends on who God is and what He has chosen to do and be.

Unconditional love.   In the past I thought it was like the love a mother has for her child – and for many the similarities are there; then I saw through the work we do in Africa – how a mother would throw her helpless child into a bin bag and discard it in a rubbish skip alongside rotting vegetables and garbage. Vulnerable and alone with no means of helping itself.  And I knew God’s love was greater than maternal love, that it is greater than anything we can ever imagine.

But not greater than we can experience.   Because I have seen the God kind of love in people that out of great compassion have taken those same children from the rubbish skips and loved them back to life, giving them a hope for the future.   People that have little by way of finance yet so, so rich in love and compassion.   And I have cried tears of thankfulness.

Thankfulness that God would put His love into people and give them caring and thankful hearts that they would want to share of the little they had to help others.

We have so much to be thankful for.  The world is full of complaining and hurting people – and I have got to say there is much that we can complain about.   I have been numbered with those who moan about the weather, the NHS, their personal situations, etc,etc…… but not anymore.

I have a friend who never complains about the rain (and living in Scotland she could feel very justified to moan by the amount they have in her area!), but she is thankful – why – without it there would be no green grass, beautiful flowers, oxygen giving trees, no fresh water to drink and bathe in.  We would have another Sahara.

Having spent a lot of time overseas I can tell you our NHS might not be perfect – but we have one – treatment in many countries, for young and old alike, is decided by your ability to pay not by your medical needs, regardless of how desperate they might be.

I would like to invite you to join with me this month to think each day of five – just five things for which we can and should be thankful; and thank God for them – I guarantee you will not be able to stick to five and that it will open the horizons of thankfulness.

We can start by thanking God for the very air we breathe.

Let’s thank Him for His wonderful unconditional love.

Thank Him for our families and friends.

We can thank Him for the roof over our heads, the water in the tap, the birds……………the list is endless.

Suddenly we will find our lives have taken on a new dimension – one of grateful thanks and appreciation, of love, enjoyment and compassion.

Have a wonderful, thankful, love filled month and be blessed.

Luke 17:115-15 – ‘ And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks.’

Love Barbara