Article March 20, 2000 Issue

YOU CAN'T HOARD LOVE

Trudy C. Palmer

Anyone who has been around me during winter knows that I hoard heat. Silly, but true. Show me a fireplace, and I plunk down in front of it as close as I can get without singeing whatever I'm wearing. What better opportunity to store up warmth for the next venture into New England's winter?

Hoarding heat is one thing. Trying to hoard love is another. Show me a fount of love, and, naturally, I'll want a long sip, but I wouldn't try to bottle it or to keep others from imbibing. On the contrary, that sip impels me to share it. That's the way God's love works, and that's why I volunteer.

For me, families are the frothiest fountains of love I've found. That's because God's love has been most obvious to me in the creative ways our Father-Mother has met my need for family. Not surprisingly, then, my volunteer work involves ushering foster children into permanent families. Gratitude for my own blessings leads me to this work. Not gratitude alone, though, or the desire to help. Not only a sense of civic duty, or the feeling of fulfillment. These all play a part. Ultimately, though, the impulsion isn't mine at all. Rather, God impels all good, including any I express.

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