with bucket-loads of LOVE

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. ~ 1 John 3:16-23

J13, I have made you a special LOVE NECKLACE. There was a reason I asked you what your favourite colour was;-) I needed to check it was still purple!

 

Being a necklace, it forms the shape of a “O”. That’s O for obedience. Remember the song we made up when you were little? O is for obey, o is for obey, o is doing what we should, o is for obey. Now you have a *big-girl reminder* of God’s desire for us to obey.
It has a heart clasp. God holds you in His love. He wants you to obey out of love for Him. He wants to use you to share His love with others. Love holds everything together.
See all those beads? See how they’re all different? They represent the various people you’ll come across in your life, people who will walk part of the journey with you. Love them, bless them, serve them. I also put *our family* into your bracelet. In the middle you’ll find two silver beads (your Mama and your Dadda) followed by eight tiny purple beads – that’s you-n-your-siblings. For the most part we have been the centre of your life up till now, but as you get older you will move more and more into the Big Wide World Out There and you will meet new people – you’ll see “them” around the outside of your bracelet, in all different shapes and sizes, along with a heart to remind you to love love love everyone you come across.

If you look closely, you’ll see two little flower spacers. I don’t need to tell you what flowers do; how they grow from a seed and bloom. You have written your own book about that! Just as your sunflowers bloomed, I pray you will blossom and be sunshine to others you meet in the garden of your life. I pray you will grow (maybe not as tall as the sunflowers, but certainly as straight) and be a source of beauty and nourishment for others. Put your roots down deep.

Did you notice there are three strands twisted together? Reminds me of another song we used to sing. *Three in one, three in one, God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit are three in one one one*
You’ll see the triune God in the Scripture on your card too. Remember, God is love. God is the reason. God is.