Although she has been gone for nearly nine years now, I could not help but think of my mother on Saturday of last week.  It was her birthday.  I recently heard John Lennon's "Mother." For those who have not heard the song, Lennon sings of the mother and father whom he always wanted but, as he puts it in the song, were never there for him.  They didn't "have" him.
     Would we all wish for parents who are there for us, who "have" us, who love us as we wish them to love us.  In contrast to Lennon, I experienced this love in full, and more, in the love of my parents, my mother and father.  I really needed nothing more from them, for in their love they gave me everything I could possibly want and need.  I left home believing that the world was a good place, that people were decent beings, that love reigned in the universe.
     I hope that you find this kind of love, too.  Whether it's from your parents or others, I hope that, through it, you come to see the fullness and presence of love in the cosmos, and enjoy and appreciate its every expression on our behalf.  That you see love as something that always wants you.
     A love like the love of God.  Thank goodness for a loving God.