Love is Vulnerability
Love is vulnerability; willingness to lose that which is most dear to you. We lost our first child ten years ago and it was the most gut-wrenching feeling ever. To take the risk of this happening again whenever I have been pregnant has felt unbearable, like having your heart open and exposed, waiting for a  sword to potentially strike it at any moment.  Jesus' love for us is similar, wide open, but to an infinitely greater degree. He continually gives us everything. He was willing to lose and be rejected for our sake. He was ridiculed and despised, yet forgave. 
How often do I reject Jesus? I am always surprised on Good Friday how so many don't want to read out loud as part of the Crowd during the reading of the Passion. Over and over again, we are complicit in the crucifixion through our sins. Sometimes it is my active actions and other times I am quietly passive and allow the injustices of the world to continue. Yet the wonder of Christ, His glorious perfection, is that He still loves me, despite my many shortcomings. He knows my faults yet is not afraid to take on the whole world for me!
St. Augustine famously declared, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in you." It always feels like something is missing, like I'm a puzzle piece waiting to be added to something that needs completing. We can often embrace the allures of today's world while foregoing the heavenly gifts that await us tomorrow. We must remember over and over again that we belong not to this world, but to God's kingdom. As a child of God, thirst for that water which provides eternal comfort, that of Christ's peace!
By Alexis Dallara-Marsh