Photo by Dan Smith

 "A child fills a place in your heart that you never knew was empty."  ~ Unknown

We were blessed with a new nephew this week.  I haven't met him yet ... but I ache to.  As much as I know that I'm finished having children (and am completely at peace with that decision), there's just something about holding a newborn that is so precious, so beautiful.  It makes my heart swell.

"Then I did the simplest thing in the world...I leaned in...and kissed him and my world cracked open."  ~ Unknown

When I fell in love and married, at the ripe old age of 18, I couldn't imagine loving anyone more.  That just couldn't be possible. 

 
A little over six years later, we were blessed with our firstborn daughter.  And though different, the love I felt couldn't have been greater.  When I learned I was expecting our second child, I worried and feared that I wouldn't be able to love him like his older sister.  I was so wrong.  My heart grew in love the moment he was born.  As our final baby arrived, our second daughter, the lesson was learned all over again.

"To have a child, is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."  ~ Unknown

So when my nephew was born on Tuesday, the first baby to his parents, I wondered if they felt the same.  I suspect maybe so.  Maybe we all do at times.  And then I wondered why.  Why do we think there isn't enough love to go around?

There are lots of reasons, one would suppose, that we worry about love ... about loving and being loved.  Too many sad reasons to explore.

"The best and most beautiful things can not be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart."  ~ Helen Keller

But my biggest revelation (as I'm over-analyzing all of this while praying this baby through his arrival) was realizing that maybe all the love we all need in this big ol' world is already here, has always been here.  Just waiting, waiting for us to open our tiny hearts so it can become part of us, dwell within us.  Waiting for us to take it in and then give it away.  Waiting for us to share it, with anyone, with everyone.  Waiting for us to come to the realization that when we share it, Love grows even more.

"If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded."  ~ Unknown

So, today I will open my heart.  Today I will let myself be loved.  Today I will love another ... and another ... and another ... and another.  And tomorrow, I pray, I will do it all again.

Will you?

"Beloved, let us love one another ..."  ~ 1 John 4:7a