Unravel a heart, pull it apart,
Tug on every thread
From it’s start, along it’s length
And trace it to the end.
Tear a heart at it’s seams
Start with a peak
Let everything spill out –
They’re to hold but not to keep.
All just takes up space
Until it’s finally exposed;
A thread becomes it’s own
When distinct from the whole.
We have been created to feel, and to feel deeply. Love is beautiful because it connects us to the One who is love; when we experience love, we experience God.
When we experience love lost in any form, what we are experiencing is still love, though now at a distance, separated by a chasm. When we see the chasm, we rage and we question, we sorrow and we mourn. We don’t really want to understand why the chasm is there, we want it gone. We want what is far off to be brought near; what was lost to be restored – not the relationship, but the love, this love that ties us to God. Herein lies the poetic nature of love: though our experience changes, what we experience is still love.
When we replace love without restoration, we cover the chasm without filling it and the void remains, growing with each loss. We have a capacity to know the love of Jesus and to be filled with the fullness of God. Some come to Jesus with hearts stretched to their elastic limit and so, hardened; some stretched further and broken. In these the chasm is great; the void in need of great love to fill. Jesus fills and He restores that which has been stretched to its limit, and great lack becomes great abundance. Some, by Jesus’ abundance of love, have their hearts filled and stretched. All the know the love of Jesus grow in love through the same.
“that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3)
“I will run the course of your commandments, for you shall enlarge my heart.” (Psalms 119)
“Therefore, I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” (Luke 7)
The Lord will enlarge your heart and fill every void.
I spoke to someone who had been through much and experienced deep loss. As I listened to him speak, God said something that has impacted me deeply – as is often true of the Lord’s words. He said: “the deepest wells are the darkest places.” Depth without light is deep darkness.
I remember feeling such deep gratitude that I could share in a heart that has felt so deeply. Deep cries out to deep. The heart that knows deep love is drawn to the heart that knows deep loss; the heart that is in deep need of filling cries out to the heart that is deeply filled. We keep close, because love covers a multitude of sins, casts out fear and restores what is broken. Love Jesus and love Jesus well, love people and love people well, and all else will flow from this.