The Life-Changing Secret of a Little Red Fox

Friday morning I’ll kiss this beautiful redheaded baby girl goodbye and fly nearly a thousand miles away.

I’ve gotten so used to the touch and smell of her sweet little skin that it’s hard to imagine how I’ll ever leave.

I know I have to go home,  but I also know this…………………

part of my heart will stay in Texas.

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That’s the thing about love.

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It expands as far and wide as necessary in order to share its warmth.

Love never fears being spread too thin.

Love knows it doesn’t have to be present in human form in order to be felt deep in the soul.

And most of all, love sees the walls we build to protect our hearts and somehow manages to climb right over them.

And believe me I’ve built some pretty high walls in my lifetime.

Love isn’t afraid of being hurt even though its fully aware of the risk.

It doesn’t see boundaries as hurdles…………..

but rather wiggles its way through any crack or crevice available and says,

“I’m here to stay.”

Love is brave enough for goodbyes,

because it sees the joy of the next “hello” long before the next “hello” arrives.

Perfect love truly does cast out fear,

because perfect love knows there’s so much more to life than what we see with human eyes.

And what we can’t see truly is all that matters.

My daughter-in-law and I, inspired by a gift for baby Elaine from Uncle Evan,

watched “The Little Prince” this week on Netflix.

As the little prince journeyed from one planet to the next,

he met a little red fox who told him a very simple secret to understanding life.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;

what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

I don’t know about you,

but there are plenty of things I see every day that seem so very important.

My to-do list overflows with many things I deem worthy of my time and effort.

But I never want to forget that it’s only with my heart that I’m able to see the truly essential things.

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My eyes may continue to see things that need to be done,

but my heart sees love holding people together no matter how far apart they may live.

My heart sees love being worth the cost of tears.

My heart sees joy where it once felt so much sadness.

My heart sees hope where the world sees despair.

My heart sees a bright future even on the darkest day.

Paul understood this kind of vision when he wrote Ephesians 1:18,

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.”

It’s only when the eyes of our heart are opened that everything else is able to fall perfectly into place.

And maybe that’s what boundaries really are……………

not the walls we build to protect our hearts but the lines God draws to connect them.

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Isn’t that what Psalm 16:6 is all about?

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

surely I have a delightful inheritance.

Psalm 16:6

Open my eyes, Lord, I want to see what you see.

I want to see with my heart.