One day a father and his young daughter climbed to the top of a high point of land overlooking the ocean on one side and a picturesque valley on the opposite side.

The father said, “Look up,” and the child gazed into the vast expanse of the sky above.

“Look down,” the father urged, and the child saw the reflection of white clouds and blue sky in the sea below.

“Look out,” the man suggested, and his daughter looked and watched the waves of water rolling over an infinite horizon.

“Now turn around and look over the green valley.”

As she contemplated the broad, beautiful landscape below, her father continued,“My child, so high, so deep, and so wide is the love of God for all creation.”

With an insight characteristic of the childlike heart, the young girl observed,“Daddy, if God’s love is so high, so wide, and so deep, then we are living in the middle of it!”
It was a similar comprehension of the all-encompassing love of God that prompted Paul to write to the Christians at Ephesus:

“I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:14-18).

The real quest of every soul is to experience the fullness of God’s love and care. It is the prayer of Silent Unity for you, dear friend, that you may live always in the center of God’s love and rejoice in blessings of peace, wisdom, health, and abundance.

Some people seem to look for happiness by way of pleasurable experiences. Others seem to think that power would make them happy. Still others seem to believe that the attainment of good health or intellectual superiority is most desirable. All these aspirations may be worthy objectives, but without love all other things in life lose their delight.

In the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul reminds us that, while we may have numerous commendable qualities and be able to attain fame and success, if our abilities and deeds and successes are not tempered with and accompanied by love, we gain nothing. On the other hand, the results of love are always good.

“Some want to love but do not know how,” writes James Dillet Freeman. “They are like children who wish to make music but have not mastered any instrument. They have not learned; but one can learn to love. The beginning of love is giving.

“For him who has never given it is not easy to give. Let him begin by giving but a little. Let him give a smile where he would have passed unheeding. Let him give a kind word where he would not have spoken.

“If you will take one faltering step, love will rush to meet you and bear you on. For love is the great giver.”

When you pray and meditate, realize that you are living in the very center of God’s love. Warm the deep recesses of your spirit at the fire of love and express love in every thought, word, and act of your life.

Every person seeking to give or receive love begins an experiment that ends as an experience. When we express love, it transforms every facet of our lives and draws to us associations and circumstances that flourish and grow into enduring and happy experiences. Quite often our love may change the life of another, but it never fails to change our own hearts and lives. “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (1 Jn. 4:7).

The Old Testament book of Hosea is generally accepted as a parable in which the depth and broadness of God’s love for the Israelites is portrayed. Hosea is speaking for God when he declares:

  “I will heal their faithlessness;
   I will love them freely …
   They shall return and dwell beneath my        shadow,
   they shall flourish as a garden;
   they shall blossom as the vine.”
                         —Hosea 14:4, 7 (RSV)

Your life will flourish as a garden and blossom as the vine as you “comprehend … what is the breadth and length and height and depth” of God’s love and rest continuously in the center of it.