“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” Robert Heinlein
The Barrel Angels are sturdy, built strong to carry important contents.
Barrels are history’s plastic bag. For centuries people stored important goods in barrels. They have stored gunpowder, meat, fish, paint, honey, nails and whale oil, to mention just a few items. The Egyptians used them. The Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings used them. Europeans and early Americans used them. In fact, they are still used for wine, whisky, sherry, olives Balsamic vinegar and Tabasco sauce!
Barrels hold important, and often, precious commodities.
The Barrel Angels, holding precious gifts from God, are no different!
This Barrel Angel is called “Love” because she holds God’s Love for us. This makes her a special gift for anyone in your life, including yourself. She will remind you just how deeply LOVED you are. Just like flowers in a garden, love grows! The more you know and experience love, the deeper it grows. The pretty colors and cascade of flowers encourage us to keep on growing in learning to love God’s way.
There are several kinds of love:
There’s “social media love”- OH! I just LOVE this new pair of shoes!
There’s “married love”- growing, stick-to-it-through-thick-and-thin love mixed in with sexual love.
There’s “brotherly love”- love for family and friends.
And then there’s God’s love- the type of love to which we attain in all our relationships. The kind of Love God loves us with- unconditional and endless. God loves because He is love and therefore cannot help but love all of His creation- all people.
There’s a place for each kind of Love.
The Love this Barrel Angel contains is truly heavenly.
It’s a Love that is patient and always kind. It does not envy or boast. And it is not proud or arrogant or rude.
It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking nor does it insist on it’s own way.
This Love is not easily angered. It does not keep any record of wrongs. It is not resentful.
Love does not delight in wrong-doing but rejoices with the truth and honesty.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
(Based on 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a)
God’s Love is a stretch for most of us but God is faithful to help us when we desire to grow in Love.
And when we feel like there’s no one on earth who can love US so perfectly (because truly it doesn’t come easily to us humans), she will remind us that Father God loves us exactly this way!
Remember, “… Let all that you do be done with love.” ! Corinthians 16:13b
I have a variety of Barrel Angels on my website, as well as a longer description of barrels in general. I hope you’ll go check take a look and read all about them!
Thank you!
Pathways and Portals 