February 28, 2019
Behind the Picture! Bitten Heart
It was Valentine’s Day.
I was at work (Playroom not coaching this evening). Christina and Kimberly had come with me because my workplace is about 12 minutes from my sister’s house versus my house being about 35 minutes distant and Christina wasa going over to babysit her cousins. (Kimberly is a year older than Livy, her closest cousin, and they LOVE to do anything together, so she jumped at the chance to spend time with her.)
Louis and I never really do anything special on Valentine’s Day as we are usually working it! Christina considers Valentine’s Day a married-adult-only holiday and the chocolate on sale the 15th as the holiday for her.
We celebrate our love daily. At least, I feel like we do. At this time, I was dealing with a pretty bad allergic reaction to the inhaler medication and trying to keep normalcy while managing that and figuring out a new method to help when the black mold in our house messed with my breathing. Louis was home (supposed to be resting his back) keeping everything in line there. He’s an amazing chef and always had an awesome lunch /dinner when I came home between jobs. There’d be a fresh hot dinner, usually just for him and me, when I got home from gym (between 8:30 and 9:30pm so the kids had already eaten).
When my sweet sister picked Christina and Kimberly up, she gave me a yummy, organic, cookie she and her youngest daughter had made. (It looked so beautiful I almost didn’t want to eat it!) She is a fitness instructor, nutritionist, and thoughtful, loving sister!
I was at that moment, a very hungry pregnant lady.
While watching the youngest in the playroom, I was studying and working on my journal for Christina (More about that in a later post), and I don’t like to eat around those who don’t have something to eat. So the heart sat there, calling me, until the boys brought in their own candy and the baby went home.
When I took a bite, instantly my mind thought of how when we give true love (our world uses a heart to symbolize love), it is without expecting anything back. We expect the recipient of our love to consume that love and we are thrilled if they enjoyed our offering. My sister and niece happily created a labor of love (the cookies) to selflessly, happily give away without expectation of anything in return.
Of course, in true loving relationships, both parties give love continually to each other. In the varying seasons of life, one may seem to be giving more than the other, but true love gives without considering reward. We expect our “hearts” to be “eaten” by those we give them to. If we truly love, we are happy, even excited, that our love accepted and enjoyed our labor of love.
Jesus gave his love (no greater love has a man than when he gives his life for another) to us knowing that many would not even accept his gift. They would live their lives, partake of all the gifts Jesus gave (air to breathe, beauty of creation, life itself, etc…), consuming His labors of love one by one, yet never returning anything. Some would come to enjoy relationship with Jesus, but He knew some wouldn’t and yet He still poured out His love.
All this ran through my mind at the sight of one bite taken from a cookie. (So, yes, I took a food picture.) A little deep, maybe, but that’s my writer’s brain.
I plan to continually shower those around me with as much love as I can give, and this picture will remind me to not think of getting anything back – to rejoice always when they accept and consume the love I give.
Thanks for reading!
Type at you later…
~Nancy Tart