Divine love is beyond our comprehension, but we must begin somewhere. I think of Merry’s advice to Pippin in The Lord of the Rings: “It is best to love first what you are fitted to love.”
The hobbits were fitted to love the shire. Their deep roots and affection for the things of home enabled them to care for the troubles of the greater world that was beyond their grasp. We, too, can start at home and see the love for our families as a signpost to something greater.
—Excerpted from 2016: A Book of Grace-Filled Days by Jessica Mesman Griffith