God’s Love Language

Posted by JewishMom on Sep 20, 2023 in Current Events, Inspiration | 1 comment

I’ve always had a hard time feeling Hashem loves me.

The problem is, I just don’t get it.
Hashem is infinite, omnipotent, impossible to comprehend. How is it possible to feel loved by this infinite, omnipotent, incomprehensible entity?
But last week I had a timely God’s-Love breakthrough in my Elul writing workshop with Yocheved Rottenberg that transformed my Rosh Hashanah.
My embarrassingly simple realization was this: just like we human beings have different love languages, I can experience Hashem’s love for me through my personal favorite love language: Acts of Service.
This makes sense for me since I love noticing and feeling gratitude for all the ways Hashem helps me out. Little moments of Hashgacha pratit as well as big events. I even have a hashgacha pratit journal that I write in every day.
But it never occurred to me, until that writing class, that hashgacha pratit has anything to with Hashem’s love.
Just like all the things I do for my children. I bought you the shampoo you wanted, I made your favorite soup, I took you to the doctor.
But just as it’s easy for my kids to miss the connection between my acts of service for them and my love for them, it’s challenging but wonderful to translate all the things Hashem does for us day in, day out into: “I’m taking care of you. And that’s how I’m showing you I Love You.”