Love Heals

“We love because He first loved us.”

1 John 4:19

Love heals.

For most of my adult life, I dreamed of being a mom. I imagined late-night cuddles, tiny fingers wrapped around mine, and whispered “I love you’s” as I rocked my baby to sleep. In retrospect, I think it was because I wanted someone I could love.

And then, after years and years of infertility, I was blessed with my son, JD. Holding him, feeding him, memorizing every tiny feature—it was everything I had hoped for and more. Finally, I had someone to care for with my whole heart, without fear of rejection.

I soaked up every moment of being his mama. Loving him was the most natural thing in the world. But, one day, when JD was three, something happened I never saw coming.

He climbed into my lap, wrapped his little arms around me, and whispered, “Mommy, I love you so much.”

I froze.

Of course, I had said those words to him a thousand times. But hearing them spoken back? It stopped me in my tracks. Not because I didn’t know he loved me, but because I had never really considered what it would feel like to be loved back.

For years, I focused only on giving, pouring out what I had to offer. But in that simple moment, I understood something important: you cannot give what you haven’t allowed yourself to receive.

And I think that is true for a lot of us.

We give. We care. We pour out, hoping that in the giving, we will somehow be made whole. But love was never meant to be a one-way thing.

You were created to be loved, too.

Not just by family, not just by friends, but by the very One who knit you together. And His love? It is the kind of love that sees you, chooses you, and holds you close—no strings attached.

Love was never meant to be a one-way street.

Let love in. Let Him in.

Because love—real love—doesn’t just heal the people you pour into.

It heals you, too.