With All My Heart

To love and to cherish, from this day forward - and by death we still will not part

Replace the hard-ships with heart-loads!

This world is but a hallway that leads to the ballroom that is the World to Come.
Do we truly think that we have the capacity to understand what each event in this hallway means?
Do we really think that in our limited, finite minds we can interpret Hashem's most profound and infinitely wise reasons for each and every single movement and event in this world?
Just as a child sitting and playing joyfully and without fear in the back seat of a car being driven by his parents through a dangerous and treacherous snow storm - we must be well aware that Hashem is in control. He is driving - and a Master driver He is.
All we can do is realize and accept His judgments, however painfully they may be. In the end, there is reason for everything. And His reasons are just - if we would only know how ...

The Chofetz Chaim recounted at the funeral of one of his sons the story of a woman whose two sons were killed before her very eyes during the Spanish Inquisition. She lifted her eyes to the Heaven and whispered, "Hashem, I confess that while my sons were alive, my love for You was not complete; I left a corner in my heart for the love of my sons. Now that my sons have passed, all of my love is only for You, and I can completely fulfill the mitzvah of loving You with all my heart!"
When he finished the story, the Chofetz Chaim concluded, "The love that I had for my son until now I hereby offer to You!"

Let us take the pain and turn it into love!
Let us take the darkness and turn it into light!
Let us take the our exile and turn it into redemption!
All Hashem asks from us is to believe in Him.
If we would just find the courage to love and to cherish without question.
After all, He is our Father, and our Father knows best!

Say to yourself ten times today:
"Hashem, I may not know why You do what You do - but I know full well that You do!"