God is love

 Today we read from Isaiah 12:1-14:32 in the One Year Bible. Isaiah prophesies that Israel will soon say, "I praise you, O Lord! You comfort me. God has come to save me. I will trust in Him and not be afraid."

This brings to mind the wise admonition by St Therese of Liseux, in the picture above. How does that make any sense when the Bible tells us that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, you might ask?

Well, like I've pointed out before, fearing God is the beginning of wisdom, and loving God is the fulfillment of wisdom. When we first realize who God is, it scares us if we are even a little bit intelligent. He's all powerful, all knowing, and all good. That's a scary combination when you see it from the POV of a sinner. In fact, we read about that earlier in Isaiah: "Woe is me, because I'm a man of unclean lips!" wailed Isaiah, and then the angel came with the burning coal and fixed that.

Peter said the same thing, "Depart from me, because I'm a sinner". He said this to Jesus when he realized Who Jesus was. 

So that's where we begin. Our wisdom starts with us saying, "Uh oh. You're big and powerful and holy, and I'm small and sinful. You should, by all rights, snuff me out."

But then we begin to realize that even though God is holy, He is love. His love pulls us in and heals us and takes away our sins and makes us whole again. So then we learn that we don't have to be afraid anymore, like The Little Flower tells us, but we can throw ourselves into His arms with joyful, loving abandon.

God, thanks for teaching us that we can love You without reservation.