December 19, 2017 Advent Devotional - 1 John 1:4-7

Several months after finding out we were expecting our second child I was talking to my mother about the changes ahead of us.  How were we going to juggle two? Were we ever going to sleep again?  How were we going to afford to put two through college?  But most importantly, how were we going to be able to love another child as much as we loved the daughter we already had? 

There were two things my mother shared with me.  The first was an old saying: “Babies bring their own bread.”  Loosely translated – somehow we manage to make enough to take care of them.  The second thought she shared was even more meaningful.  She told me not to worry because our love wouldn’t divide between the children, it would multiply.  It seemed impossible at the time to imagine that, but she was right.  It multiplied when our second AND our third child arrived.  It multiplied again when our oldest daughter was married and we welcomed our son in law, and it multiplied exponentially as our three grandchildren have come into our lives.  With each new person, our lives have become more wonderful and exciting and yes, sometimes, more challenging, but I can’t imagine my life without them or the friends that have come into my life as well.  Love truly does multiply, if we let it.  Much like God’s love does for us, I imagine. What would happen if we allowed our love to multiply in the world around us?  What a wonderful season to try.

​Daily Reading:  1 John 1:4-7

4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
God Is Light5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; 7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

---