Do You Long for the Shady Path?

In these hot summer days, the walks I take with my sweet puppies, Mazzie and Lillie, are pretty much limited to mornings and evenings. And even then, it’s pretty darn hot! I find myself naturally steering each of us into the cool of the shade trees. I choose our direction decidedly by where the shade leads us.  

On more than one occasion, I’ve heard Love Itself whisper to me in these moments,
“Stay close to Me.  I also will lead you to the shady paths just as tenderly as you care for your dear pets.” I allow myself to breathe that in and consider how much cooler and softer life is when I’m trusting Love to lead.  

Yesterday, I had the honor of working with a beautiful couple who recently married. For the first time in their lives they are choosing and allowing themselves to live from the truth of their being. My heart broke as these two lovely women shared the pain of their family’s religious messaging which maintains that they will go to hell for being who they are.  

Within my heart I felt Jesus upending the tables in the temple and replying from the depth of his own heart, “How dare you take my message of love and twist it like a knife to wound any of My beloved children?” 

This morning,  back on my walk, again retreating to the next shade tree, I heard an old camp song play in my head:

“And Jesus said come to the water. Stand by my side. I know you are weary.  
You won’t be denied. I felt every teardrop, when in darkness you cried. And I long to remind you, that for those tears I died.”

You see, as I’ve met with Love Itself over my lifetime, it’s become astoundingly clear to me that the concept of Jesus dying on the cross because of our innate sins, is just complete upside-down thinking. 

I’ve come to recognize that belief system as a projection of our own guilt.   

The knowing, revealed to me from , is that Jesus accepted such a painful death so that we would know there is absolutely nothing so terrible that we could ever do that would keep Love Itself  (God, Divine Love, Source, I Am) from loving us. We are bound together as one for all eternity, no exclusions.

Jesus died to let us know that nothing can separate us from His love, no matter what. 

It doesn’t matter if we’re different from others in any way, shape, or form. 
It doesn’t even matter how much we screw up. 

It also doesn’t matter if our political or religious beliefs differ, what sex, sexual identity or race we are, and it doesn’t matter who we choose to love.

Perhaps Jesus talked so much about forgiveness so that we could let go of our relentless need to judge ourselves and others. You see, judging another is simply a statement of judgment upon ourselves anyway. The more you love and accept yourself, the less you’ll need to judge another.  
 
Judgment of any kind simply keeps us from the cool waters and shady paths where Love Itself would always lead us.

Would you like to take the shady path today?  

Try releasing all your judgments, first, of yourself. 
Then you’ll see how much easier it is to forgive and accept others. 

Let Divine Love fill you with the cool waters of pure love and soothe you in the shade of a love that will never leave you.  

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