Something I have learned even now living in three different countries is how each of us are searching for love, comfort and affection from something in our lives. Some of us search through friends, a relationship, family, shows/movies/books we relate to or other things that bring us happiness.

Some people in Costa Rica really impacted me in this way and seeing the extremes of where we turn to really shook me. One ministry we were working with was called Face of Justice. It is a ministry for the women of San Jose who work the streets in prostitution where they have two days of the week of giving breakfast for the women and a devotion or teaching. One woman who we had been getting to know through this ministry was out working the streets the day where I noticed a lot of things. When I saw this friend of ours, I was excited to see her but was sad when I saw what happened next. I saw a man pass by her and she reached out and PULLED him towards her. It was so sad to watch because no one should need to pull someone to them to receive affection. It will not fully satisfy, and it is not true love and affection. This is her work and how she makes a living (which in that alone breaks my heart) but I can’t help but think and know this is also how she gets her affection and worth.

I just felt my heart break when I saw this for her to truly experience God’s love for her. This is something that really shook me the whole rest of the morning as well as another thing I saw. There was one guy on the street maybe a block after seeing our friend that we saw with a knife almost a foot long that he was shoving in his pants. Seeing this made me think of our friend back behind us who just reached out to a guy and didn’t know if he had a knife that could hurt her or anything but didn’t care because she was so desperate for affection. We will constantly be searching for love and affection and hurting ourselves or others in the process unless we look to God and HIS LOVE.

While this is an extreme example, have there been times when you have gone to friends, a relationship, or even through your work that you have searched for the love that only God can fulfill? God literally sent His son to DIE for you to be able to share His love with you. There is no other love that can compare.

I want you to hear friends; friendships, relationship, family are all great, but they will fail in the end in truly satisfying the love you need. Also, His love is a FREE gift! He is already reaching and waiting for you with LOVE and TRUTH, we just need to take the step to accept Him.

*The ministry we work with take our safety seriously we make sure to not have valuables and we walk with locals. Yes it is a dangerous area, but we take precautions and listen to our hosts of where to go and not to go.