Encapsulated in His Love

Encapsulated in His Love

In 2004 I attended a charismatic day of prayer rally at the Adams Mark Hotel in Philadelphia, PA and had the great pleasure and privilege to see and hear Sister Josephine Walsh, a nun who is active in a cause for children of Bosnia. Sister wore street clothes and you would not have known she was a nun except perhaps by her joy in the Lord. She had a delightful manner and lilting accent. I was spell-bound.

Sister spoke of our 'space.' She suggested we raise our arms a way above our heads and meet them in the center, then bring them far out to our sides and down as far as they would go, meeting them in the center again. She described that 'space' as our personal 'space' and had us picture it as the 'space' where God is.

That is what I shall attempt to expand upon here in an effort to help us understand and be encouraged by the great love God has for each of us individually and collectively as Christian believers.

Again, raise your arms up over your head, touch your fingertips together, bring them out straight, bring them down to your sides, and draw them together. You have just delineated your own personal space. That space is full of God's Love for you.

Nothing can take that God-space away from you. There is nothing you can do that will lessen God's love for you. Nothing will take His love away except your own decision to follow Satan into eternity. Is that really a choice? Who would want to be devoid of the Love of God for all eternity. That would be hell. To be in a place where God's Love is not is hell.

Picture God's Love around you like a bubble, a bubble of love. Picture all of us with a bubble of God's love all around us. Let us suppose that we can imagine every single person in the world encased within a bubble of God's love, excepting of course, only those who defy and deny God and follow Satan. At this point we pray for Salvation and conversions.

You might think that each person encased in a bubble of God's love would bump and bang into and off one another. Boing, boing, boing! Not so! As we gather together, our God-encased bubbles intermingle, intertwine and enclose us all. We become surrounded in a union of prayer and care. I suppose that is what it means to experience the Presence of God in our collective midst. His Love grows and flows, flows and grows within like-minded Christian praying people. When united, Christians praying together, meld with one another and the Love of God becomes strong as the Holy Spirit descends upon this mass of people. This reminds me of that First Pentecost.

I experienced one moment last year, and I don't ever want to experience it again, where there was a void…….a blank, dark, dank void, de-void of any Holy Presence, not necessarily hell but NOTHING. It was a place I do not ever want to be again. For a moment it was frightening and I think the Lord permitted me to feel this for the reason I know I never want to go there again.

Imagine never having been born? Imagine never being able to know God, to love God, to serve God in this life and to be happy with Him forever in the next. Imagine the gifts we never would have received, the gifts of people around us, our parents, our families, our friends, our infancy, our youth, our adulthood, never mothering nor fathering children of our own, never hearing the sounds of nature, never seeing the beauty around us, never owning anything, never loving anyone, never praying, the list goes on and on and on.

Some of us may not have experienced all of these gifts, but most of us have experienced some of these gifts. Who is this GOD who loves us so much, He gave us life? He is the GOD of yesterday, of today, of tomorrow and every tomorrow thereafter forever and ever and ever. He always was, always is, and will always be. He always remains the same.

We do not arise in the morning that we are not encapsulated in His love. We do not move about during our day, that He is not loving us. We do not think a thought that was not permitted by Him. Would that all of our thoughts would be on the Lover and Creator of our souls. It is well to ask Our Father for favors, for needs, trusting as children in His Divine Providence and it is just as well to thank Our Father and to Praise Our Father in all things. If we accept everything as coming from Him, we know we are loved by a tender Father. He is teaching us and desiring us to be in a closer union with Him. As we are accepting of His Love, we are drawn more and more toward Him. As we are drawn more and more toward Him, He unfolds before us. Words are inadequate to describe the Holy Reality of Our God. Our souls, through the Holy Spirit's inspiration, know much more than our human minds can ever express. When we contemplate and meditate upon the Glory of God our souls swell, our hearts swell, we find PRAISING a natural thing to do. We are lifted to a higher plain and this, too, is an extraordinary gift of the Father to us. We are encapsulated in His Love.

As I was walking through New York City a couple of weeks ago, I imagined every person surrounded in a bubble of God's Love. It helped me to see the homeless man in the same light as the taxi cab driver, as the street vendor, as the shop owner, something that is extremely hard to do in New York City where millions are trying to make their way to their destinations. In all of that hustle-bustle, do we think God loves one more than another? It is not possible. He loves the lowly and the mighty. He humbles the mighty and the lowly He lifts up. It was not possible for me to picture everyone's bubble of love for very long, however it did help me to see differently and has colored my outlook, I pray for the long haul. Help us, O Lord, to follow in your ways, to soak in your perfect love, and through the power of your Holy Spirit, make us aware of being encapsulated in your love.

Visualizations imprint upon our minds pictures to help us remember. Visualize! Visualize! Visualize our own personal bubble of love, and the bubbles of love of everyone we see and meet. Try to see that each person is loved by God, The Father, and He made each of us to one day be happy with Him in Heaven. In essence, we are brothers and sisters, with One Father, who has encapsulated each one of us in His Love. His Love is not for a time. It is for ALL time, forever.

Whenever you raise your arms to stretch, perhaps upon arising in the morning to greet the new day, remember to visualize. Visualize God's bubble of love around you. Visualize God's bubble of love around your family, in your workplace, in the supermarket, on the bus, in your Church, wherever you are, visualize that bubble of God's love around each person you see. It will color your vision and help you to love a little more like Jesus loves. It will help you to become a little more objective and a little less judgmental. It will help you to attain a little more freedom and a little more peace. God knows we need more of these graces in our souls and spirits.

Let us pray for the ability to see a little more clearly that we are all encapsulated in His Love. Not convinced?…then look to the Cross, and see the Victim, victorious in His Resurrection. He bids us "COME." On our way to Paradise we are ENCAPSULATED in HIS LOVE. VISUALIZE! VISUALIZE! VISUALIZE!

Mel Patterson © June 2004