I remember the first time I heard Whitney Houston sing "I Will Always Love You." It took my breath away, humbled me, and made me want to love people more and more. What grips me the most is the dramatic pause before she sings the title line— "And I will always love you." The song is obviously sad in nature (It seems to me that all songs have at least a touch of sadness in them.), as she explains why she must leave him--why their love will not work. Then out of nowhere comes this heart-wrenching pause. I'm not even sure why it is so heart-wrenching for me. Maybe because the pause makes me remember on some level the people I have loved, but who haven't loved me back the way I wanted or needed them to. Maybe it reminds me of how shallow my love is in that I am not able to love others the way I really want to love others.

Whatever it is, as her voice rings out from that deep, silent, abyss, my breath is taken away, every nerve ending comes alive, and more often than not, tears come to my eyes. For me it is an emotional and spiritual experience. It is spiritual because that "pause" so reminds me of God's love. It's as if God's love erupts forth from that abyss, creating the Bridge between that great chasmic gulf—what I am and what I want to be; how I love and how I desire to love; who I was before salvation and who He's now fashioning me into—the image of His Son.

Saying that I appreciate the fact that God always loves me seems trite to me. To attempt to put into words how His love affects me seems cheap. Any words I can come up with, though they had of late fallen from angel's tongues, ineffectively explain, reveal, communicate, how deeply His love impacts my soul, my spirit, my strength, my mind, and my heart, which is deceitful above all things; yet He loves me. He loves you. He loves us. Tell me, how can this possibly be!

Grace to you!