tonight at Love Feast, Tim invited everyone to share little stories about how they experience God loving them.

neighbor-friends around the table whose lives look to me to be so hard, so undesirable, still had things to share, moments where they've seen evidences of His love for them.

i'm thankful He woke me up this morning.
i'm thankful i'm out of the hospital, alive and walking!
i'm glad i had a good day at school today.
my son is going to be 14 in two months; he's as tall as i am!
i'm thankful for my friend Tony (who is present in the room); i wouldn't be here without him.
my baby cousin H (whom we've been praying for) was released from the hospital on the 22nd of August!
M and T had a baby girl yesterday morning; her name is Sophie.

i was so humbled to hear these joyful testimonies as folks popped up one-by-one around the room with hardly a pause between, to speak about how Papa loves them.

and then we sang,

"He loves us,
oh how He loves us,
oh how He loves us;
How He loves us...oh!"

i kept my eyes open as i sang it, looking slowly around the room, to see all my neighbor-friends singing along, obviously worshipping. holy spirit shivers.

and i thought, we have come so far! i can't believe i'm witnessing this thing.

we are never too poor, too low, too addicted, too abused, too dirty to receive the Father's love.

and. gratitude is a potent medicine.

::brooke::

(this blog entry was originally posted here)