“Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me You have been so, so good to me. Before I took a breath, You breathed Your life in me. You have been so, so kind to me”

This song does something to my soul. In many ways, the overwhelming love of God has sept into my cracks to shine light on my deepest wounds. It’s turned me inside out.

Only in retrospective moments, am I able to see my life in a sort of holy equation. I.e this had to happen, in order for that to happen and here I am. Can anyone else relate?

In retrospective moments it is easy for me to identify God’s place in my life.

An excerpt from a speech I delivered in May 2019 at Fordham University to my colleagues, titled Anchored in God’s Love:

In the 15th chapter of Luke, we have the parable of the Lost Sheep. I remember being younger, being in central park with my dad, and we used to do this really unsafe thing which I definitely don’t recommend. We used to run the reservoir at night. For me it was a run and for my dad it was a glorified walk, don’t let him know I said that though! I used to run ahead of him, but just far enough to where if I looked back I could still see him- always in eye's view. But one night, I looked back and he wasn’t there. I got lost from him on that dark reservoir without a cellphone. I didn’t know what else to do so I just started praying. It felt like a world’s end later but I remember when my dad finally found me, very far actually from the path I had originally started on.

And I remember what that felt like. I knew that everything was okay again, and that it wouldn’t happen again because well for one, I was going to tell my mom, and more importantly 2 - I was in his hands.

I’m sure we all can relate to this story in some way or another. The feeling of being found, the feeling of being met right where you are, the feeling of being seen. That is the beauty of our Faith.

In the parable of the Lost Sheep, the Shepherd loses 1 out of 100 sheep. In the eyes of the world that would be insignificant. But the truth about this parable is that nothing is insignificant in God’s eyes. You are not insignificant in God’s eyes. He leaves the other 99 to find you. Because he loves you that much. We have this confidence in our God, that he’ll be there for us when we need him because he does just that. In his present nature,  He shows up. Each of us is loved by God not because of anything we do, anything we deserve--but simply because we are, and we are God’s children. We are, and that is enough.

He knows, you, me by name. Sees us for our hearts and calls us to be his sons and daughters. How beautiful? We all come before him with these beautiful stories, each so different, and yet he says to us, I love your story. And wants to meet us where we are now, if only we would be open to it.

Love and Light!

Xx, Sab