Love is: Connection with God

I saved my favorite love story for very last. There are a lot of ways to feel love on this earth. But there is a love that transcends them all. I remember one of the first times I felt it, I was a little kid walking home by myself from elementary school. I had experienced a rough day with friends and felt so alone. I wanted so badly to have someone to talk to, so I started to pray. I pictured Jesus next to me, as comfortable and real as if I was talking to my mom. I spilled out everything inside of me and then I felt the most wonderful thing fill me up in its' place: the love of connecting with God. It felt warm and peaceful and joyful all at the same time. It was sacred and divine and so far beyond any feelings I had felt before. I felt filled up with LIGHT. I walked slower, just so I could savor this wonderful experience longer. It was the first of many, many times in my life when I would experience this connection. One of my heroes, Joseph Smith, used the phrase "pillar of light" to describe the first time he connected to heaven and I always feel like that describes my experience. Like I am completely plugged in to heaven, that there is a straight shaft of light streaming directly on me and in me. It makes me feel like whatever mortal problems I'm facing are small and not important in the grand scheme. I feel hope. It makes me feel filled with love and filled with such a desire to share that love with everyone around me. And most of all, like that day so long ago, I remember that I am not alone in the universe, that there is a God who loves me. God IS love.