It was 6 years ago this week that Tim and I were in China meeting our daughter Lyla for the first time. It was an emotion-filled day because we knew that even though it was one of the happiest days of our lives, we were fully aware that it was to be one of the most sad, confusing, heartbreaking days of hers as she left the arms of her beloved foster family and came into the arms of strangers who she had only seen via facetime singing her songs and reading her stories. We did not speak the same language. Lyla was used to hearing Mandarin, we speak English. She was at the age where she was just beginning to learn her first few words in Chinese like GuGu (big brother) and BaBa (daddy). We needed to rely on something beyond language to connect; something that would transcend language. We needed to rely on smiles and love and hugs and food to bond and connect beyond culture and language. We needed the universal language of love.
Last Sunday we celebrated Pentecost Sunday together. It is the day when we remember how God poured out the Holy Spirit in such a way that his power and presence transcended culture and language. It is a day when we think about what it means to live in the fullness of the Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? What does it look like to be filled with the Spirit of love? To be filled with the Spirit of God?
I wish for you to be filled with the Spirit of love today. I pray that you might be so filled with God’s Holy Spirit that you speak the universal language of love to everyone, but especially to your enemies. I pray that you might learn that language that transcends culture, divisions, and moves beyond words to connect at the level of our human hearts. May the words of your mouth, and the meditation of your heart be an outpouring of the union that exists eternally in the Triune God. May the oneness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit surround you so strongly that it is the truth beckoning you forward in each and every interaction you have today.
May the tongues of fire, and the wind of God fill you up today.
Susie Grade 