Jesus Loves Me

Some people would try to tell you that I'm a complicated woman, but I'm really not. It's truly the simplest things that bring me the greatest joys. A while back I wrote a post about the things for which I want to be remembered. During a Sunday morning service, the pastor had asked us to come up with what we wanted written on our tombstones, an activity designed to help us begin living with the end in mind. That was an easy one for me. Some time ago, more as a joke with my family than anything, I wrote down "funeral instructions" in a purple journal that included how I wanted to be remembered. When I am gone, I would like you to say, "Oh how she loved Jesus ... and oh how she loved me!"
This weekend, I spent about 24 hours on a retreat with the women who have been closest to me over the last year. On Saturday morning, we took time to write letters to each other in the journals we were given for the weekend. I read through the letters quickly on Saturday afternoon, but last night, when I got in bed, I took time to read them more slowly and really enjoy what my sisters had to say to me. It was so encouraging to find out that the things I've been striving to communicate in everything I say and do has been heard and felt in their lives. So many of them commented that they knew without a doubt that I love Jesus and several of them also commented about the fact that they felt very loved by me. And, in my heart, I thought "Victory!"
Saturday evening, in the course of testing a new database for work, a friend making up a bogus contact used the sentence "Kristen love Jesus" to test the field space. It was a simple, silly thing he probably didn't give much thought to at all, but it struck me that of all the things he could have typed in that space "Kristen loves Jesus" is what came to mind. And, I was thankful.
Today, another friend was making a joke about what each of us should have written on our bathroom mirror to encourage us each morning based on our personalities or funny things our friends belive to be true about us. His suggestion was that my mirror would read, "Somebody in heaven loves me."
That's when it really hit me. Yes, it's important that you know that I love Jesus and that I love you, but the greater truth is not that I love Jesus, but that Jesus loves me. This, I cannot do without.