"I love you, too!"

"Life is just a short opportunity for you during a few years to say to God, 'I love you, too.'"

Henri Nouwen, "Spiritual Direction"

 

I love this!  It really got me thinking about the ways we say to God "I love you, too."  I really believe our love and compassion for others says that to God; Jesus told us that.  Our conversational prayer with God, talking to God throughout our busy days keeps us in touch in a loving way (even if we're complaining--that's just honest conversation!).  Doing whatever we do with kindness and our best effort is like a love letter to God. In this book, Henri Nouwen speaks of the difference between prayers and being prayerful.  Prayers are our specific intentions, rote prayers; our crying out to God.  While prayerfulness is sort of staying in touch with God all the time; doing what we know God would like us to do.  Our doing what we do for the glory and love of God is prayerful, without necessarily saying a prayer. The connection then, is that our being prayerful, all through our days, is our way of saying to God, "I love you, too!"  Love, heidi