Living Eternally

“God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.” 1 John 4:9 NLT

I've never understood this one. I really haven't. I think I've read and heard ones like these so many times, the meaning just swept by. I'm a little tired this morning, slept ok, not the best, a lot on my mind last night. I've always got a lot on my mind. Sip some coffee, I read and think, yesterday I helped Susan put on a baby shower for one her best friends. She was very nervous, she didn't feel quite prepared enough for it. She had already done a wedding shower for her friend, so I wasn't very worried. When Susan gets that opportunity, she runs with it. This side of her comes out that I don't see alot (due to downsizing twice). Real creative and thoughful. I was her assistant and just had to set stuff up and try keep her from stressing out. I was also the MC and the photographer. About 40 women showed up and had a great time. Yet on the way home, she continued to ask me, did they have fun? Did they like it? Absolutely. Women coming to together to celebrate new life coming into the world. I read and think, Why don't I get excited when I read this verse? Why do I get excited when I open up a present? When a baby is born? Is eternal life a has been, message? Susan did a lot of work to celebrate her friends first born. Hits me, baby's bring life into a crowd of adults, they remind me to slow down and enjoy this place. Eternal life isn't just going to heaven, it's the one thing that I can't give myself, I can't order it online, I can't drink it, eat it. It's given to me as a gift. It's showered on me by friends and family in love. It's God's perfecting timing in my weakest moment and giving me a taste of heaven. It's God using someone in my life despite how stubborn I am. It's Him using me in someones life unexpectedly. It's me believing in things I can't see. It's a baby shower. It's feeling loved. It's like on Beauty and the Beast, when the beast was transformed in the end. Through a long process of being brought to all humility and emptied of all anger and frustration, and then he was set free and back to the way he was intended. He would have never though. I get so caught up in trying to making a better life for my family that I forget the life God wants to live in me and share it with others. And once I finally surrender what I call a future and choose to obey, it's then I start seeing that His is the only way. My way was practical and good, but His way was much more established.