On loving

"And to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."--Mark 12:33

I wonder if I sometimes do not have the proper appreciation of how radical a prophet Jesus was and is. For him to tell his peers that loving people is greater than any burnt offerings or sacrifices they might make in the temple surely terrified many of them, and angered the temple authorities beyond my imaginings.
Yet it must have appealed to many, too, as it resonated deeply within their hearts and moved them to drop everything and follow him into the desert by loving and caring for people, to be rewarded at the oasis of His love as they journeyed along.
I do not come from a culture where offering sacrifices is considered a valid means of redeeming oneself. For the most part, my culture is a selfish one, telling people that no sacrifices are necessary or desirable, nor is redemption necessary to many. We have been deceived in many things in our culture.
But, the message of loving God and one's neighbor has managed to survive the dilution of God and God's purpose so that I do know it is desirable above all things to love God with everything I have within me, even if the offering of sacrifices is a foreign concept.
For the most part, loving one's neighbor is something that I have traditionally done as far away. I mean, giving money to this charity or that charity and calling it love of one's neighbor. I often forget that my neighbors are the people I see and work with on a daily basis and that I need to overcome my tendencies to overlook their needs and treat them as I would like myself treated and love them as I want to be loved.
On another note, Lord, thank you for whatever you did for me that I no longer consider it important to let them know how hurt I was over the birthday thing. You have healed my heart and I thank you and praise you for granting me such grace.
It is a healing I have felt palpably and I even know when it happened. It was last Sunday as I was walking and I actually felt as if a door had been shut or something cut off as I pondered how I would present my hurt all packaged up as a gift to them. You just healed it and lifted it from me and it is no longer something I need to do. Thank you.

Just rest in my love, sweet one and know that I am God. I do indeed take care of all your needs and have lifted a burden from you that you did not need to carry into the future. We have much to do as we journey into the desert and I have many things I wish of you and for you, none of which you can do if you are burdened with this past hurt.
Try to see loving as both a gift and a sacrifice and you will begin to grasp how deeply God loves and what it means to love. There is so much you as yet have an incorrect concept of, but just by opening up yourself in this manner do you allow me to begin to reveal myself to you. Go in peace now, knowing I do indeed love and cherish you and that you have started to know what it means to love me with all your heart and understanding and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. All is well.