Let Love Interrupt

I have heard that your measure of how much you love someone is how much you are willing to let them interrupt your plans.

This year when we set aside time to get our Christmas tree we ran out of time to put on the lights and ornaments. Sometimes life seems to get in the way of the plans we make and there just doesn’t ever seem to be enough time to get all of what we have on the list done.

My brain doesn’t always make room for interruption. I have an agenda and it needs to be accomplished. But this time we choose to leave the boxes in the yard and the tree until another day. (The boys put the lights on the morning before we ran out of the house) We needed to show love to those that we love the most the next few days. My handsome is a lot better at this than I am. So we make and keep plans to spend time with our family. I mean sisters, brothers, parents, and friends all of them in one weekend. And the reality is that we had to walk around boxes and see the mess of the job left undone and keep our focus on the love that needed to be given. And looking back it was the best way to spend our time and the decorations would have to wait because hugs, laughs and good conversations would take its place.

This leaving a job undone makes me undone sometimes.

Can you relate?

The scriptures give us examples of this sacrifice of our plans to what God has for us over and over again in the stories told within its pages. I think of Mary who was interrupted many times to bring about such a great Love for all the world to see and remember for the rest of time. She embraced because she loved the Lord her God. How much do we love our Lord God to be interrupted in such a way that it would cost us everything to give someone else everything that Love can provide?

We can at times get so busy doing our “list” that we become flustered, frustrated and even angered by the “interruptions” that our people bring. By interruptions I mean to share Love we must make time for one another and embrace what may come as time well spent if it is with someone we love even if the list doesn’t get marked off.

These times have become my favorite when I come at them with a grateful heart that embraces that dancing, unexpected and expected visits, talks, and communion with anyone that comes to welcome me into their time.

Spending time with people is not an interruption but sometimes we can treat it that way if we are not able to bend into the moments that may bring us the greatest joys.

This goes for our family, our neighbors, our church family and our closest friends if we are not willing to bend into what God is doing right at that moment because we have our own agenda then we may miss the wonderful opportunity to be apart of a beautiful thing happening. Then this builds in our hearts a begrudgingly hard heart towards the beautiful things that are going on around us and we are missing out on.

I find myself in this place when my plate becomes too full of chores and I am reminded that people are always more important than “list” and to embrace the gift of being “present” right now and right where you are.

May this give your heart the grace to embrace the “interruption” that your people make in your life and find that the truth that Love is an action, not just words.

As we go about this busy season may we not get so caught up in making a list and checking it twice that we do not see the interruptions that can speak love to those that we love and may we have a love for all our families, our neighbors, and all the world.