Dear Mama,

On my family's small starter farm, we have chickens, and if they escape from their coop, some are almost impossible to catch. My boys think it’s hilarious, and as long as I am not the one chasing after the loose chickens, I think it’s kind of funny, too.

I have chased after all kinds of things. Wanting to belong, gaining the approval of others, being seen, having success — oh, the list could go on and on. But chasing those things according to what the world says we need is like chasing the wind, and we will never catch it.

I thought I had to chase after God’s love like all these other things, but I don’t. And through reading Scripture, I found that He came looking for me. Just as a shepherd will leave his 99 sheep to chase after the one gone astray, (Matthew 18:12-14) He, too, will leave the 99 to tell the one, me, that He loves me. Just like He loves you and came for you, too.

God has placed a strong desire on my heart to share with you how much He loves you! You may think, Yeah, I know that — but do you believe it? For some, God's love for you may seem foreign, or maybe you can’t even understand this because no person has ever loved you in a true, compassionate, kind and merciful way. Maybe your earthly father wasn’t the best example of unconditional love, so when you hear that your Father in heaven loves you, you blow it off like it’s no big deal.

I can relate to all of those things; I lived them out. But now I’m on the other side of them. It wasn’t an easy road to walk, so I'm not gonna sugarcoat it at all. It was hard! But through every challenge and hurt that needed healing, God was drawing me closer and closer to Him. And as I got closer, I experienced a deep knowing and understanding of God’s real love. This isn’t a storybook- or Hollywood-type love. This is a love that brings freedom, peace, joy, strength, protection and so much more.

I pray that you “may have strength 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, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory ... Amen.” (Ephesians 3:18-21, ESV).

Praying for you,
Angela