Love wins.
That's right. I know this is true. Because the One Who died on the cross and rose from the dead told me so.
Love wins.
I may have a broken heart because so many refugees wander the world without a home, and so many children in my own country may have no health insurance, and so many teens and young adults may even be asked to leave this country they've known as a home since they were children because they aren't citizens - because we won't let them become citizens.
Love wins.
I may believe that climate change Is warming the earth and coral reefs are dying, glaciers are melting, and sea levels rising because of our own folly.
Love wins.
I may fear a nuclear war, wonder how in the end swords could be turned into plowshares or all peoples live together in peace.
Love wins.
I may weep because my fractured family seems to be unable to ever communicate again.
But Love wins.
Love whispers, steady as wingbeats in my soul, that the out-flung arms of Christ on the cross hold together all people and all created things - families, nations, worlds, galaxies. The Divine Physician cleanses our hearts of the poisons of sin since He took death and sin to the cross and conquered them. The Divine Creator continuously holds rocks, mountains, prairies, and seas, and every species in His Hands, promising to cleanse and heal and bring them to new, vibrant, eternal life one day.
Christ died to pour love and mercy upon us, to reconcile us with our own hearts and with each other, and Love - God - is the most powerful Force in the Universe. The Divine Father never ceases seeking the lost, finding them, and bringing them home. The Divine Shepherd searches for what is lost in dark places inside of you and me, and brings all of us, even the parts that cower and hide from Him, into His wonderful Light.
"Be still and know that I am God. Leave all to me," my Father whispers. "Do what I ask you to do, no less, no more, and believe that your life accomplishes what I ask of you. That your life is a precious stone flung into a pool and the ripples it causes stretch out across eternity, doing good. Your life is a precious stone set in the wall of the New Jerusalem.
"If Love wins in you, my precious child, trust and believe that Love will eventually win everywhere that my Voice is heard. Listen to my Holy Word:
"Then I saw 'a new heaven and a new earth,' for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!'" (Revelations 21)
Love wins. Love promises to, in the end, make all things new. Love begins with you and me, molding us day by day into a new creation. If we truly contemplate what He is doing in us, the quiet, ordinary miracles He is accomplishing daily in our part of the Kingdom, - can we doubt that He is simultaneously transforming the Universe?
This is what gives us hope, even if our fears and anxieties wake us in the night. Our souls can always cling safely to God, our Rock. He has told us: "I am faithful." I know this is true, for there are no lies in Him, because he is Truth Itself.
Say it to yourself over and over, and believe it. Love wins.