Recently, I was reminded of a sermon preached years ago that really affected me. The main message of the sermon was that the Lord shows up in, as, and through people. The man who preached the sermon gave examples from his own life and the lives of some of his parishioners where the Lord’s love was felt through the kindness, generosity, and charity of others.
Then, yesterday at the Young Children’s Service, I preached a similar message to the children. We talked about Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4. In the story, a great storm was threatening the boat that Jesus and His disciples were on, but while the storm was raging Jesus was asleep on a pillow. Sometimes, we may feel the same way – we need the Lord’s help but it doesn’t feel like he’s available or able to give us the help we need. I gave an example to the kids of falling and scraping a knee. The Lord isn’t able to show up and put a band-aid on the cut for us, but our parents can. We may look at a situation like that and think “The Lord didn’t help me, my mom did” but in reality, it is the Lord’s love that we experienced through the love and care that we received from our mom.
One of my favorite passages from the Heavenly Doctrines say “God loves each and every human being; and because He cannot do good to them directly, but only indirectly by means of other people, He therefore breathes into people His love” (True Christian Religion 457). After the service yesterday, I had a conversation with a couple of people about the power behind this message. On the one hand, it’s amazing to realize how present the Lord’s love really is in our lives. Every act of kindness, every loving embrace, every inviting gesture that we receive from those around us is really an example of the Lord’s love reaching us through the people around us. To feel the Lord’s presence, we merely need to look around ourselves!
And yet, that’s only half of the picture. This same teaching also shows that we have the power to bring the Lord’s love to other people through our interactions with them. When we call on a friend who is having a hard time or offer to help a stranger in the grocery store or share a meal with our family around the dinner table, we are not just showing these people that we love them, but we are also showing them that the Lord loves them.
It’s humbling to reflect on this and realize that everything good really does come directly from the Lord, and it’s empowering to realize that we play such a vital role in the Lord’s mission of sharing His love with the human race. This week, let’s look for opportunities to give thanks to the Lord for the ways His love shows up, and let’s look for opportunities to share that love with others through our own actions.