Once upon a time there was woman who was full of love. She was so happy and she had so much fun that she was almost completely full of love. One day, the woman met a man. They got along great because he was full of love too. They laughed and played together and soon were making each other so happy that they began to run out of room for all of their love

."We should not be letting all this good love go to waste," the woman said.

"I know," the man said. 'I've been keeping the extra love I have in my pockets, but there is hardly any room left. Perhaps we should talk to God, and see if God has any ideas."

The woman and the man called to God for help.

"God, we have a problem with our love," they said. "We have too much of it and we have no place to put the extra. Could you make us something to hold all of this extra love?"

God saw the man and woman needed help. "Sure, I'll get right on it!" God said.

It wasn't long before God called back to the man and woman to show them something.

"This looks great!" the man said. "Ah...what is it?"

"I call it a Cookie Jar," God said. "Look, it even has a lid!"

"Super! Thanks!" the man and woman said. They began to store their extra love in the cookie jar.

But before long, the Cookie Jar was filled to overflowing with their love. They called to God for help again.

"I was afraid something like this might happen." God said. "You have so much love that I need to make something much larger. As soon as I can figure out what to put in the Cookie Jar, I'll get right on it!"

In a while, God called the man and the woman to see two more creations. One was huge and deep. It seemed to go on forever. The other was small and round and flat. It would fit in the palm of a hand.

"Which one is the love holder?" they asked.

"The big one. It is called an Ocean," God said. "It will hold all your love. The small one is called a Cookie-jar-filling-thing. You can call it a cookie for short.”

The man and the woman were pleased. They thought their problem was solved.

But, it wasn't long before the ocean was overflowing with love. Back to God they went.

"Well!" God said. "This is a lot trickier than I thought. As soon as I can figure out what I can put in the ocean, I'll get right on it!"

In a while, God called the man and the woman back. "This is my masterpiece," God explained.

The woman and the man looked at God's masterpiece and said, "Ah.. .do we put this in the Ocean?"

"No," God said. "Since you are not going to use the ocean, I'll put all this neat water stuff that I made in there. God gestured majestically, "This is my incredible love holder."

And the man and the woman looked at God's masterpiece and asked, "Well, then, do we put this in the cookie jar?"

And God said, "No, that's what I gave you cookies for!"

"Are you sure it will work? It's kind of small, isn't it?" the man and the woman asked.

"That's what is so great about it. The more love you put into it, the bigger it gets! And, when it gets too full of love, it makes another love holder!"

The man and the woman were very impressed. They picked up the love holder and looked at it.

"This really is incredible, God! What do you call it?"

God looked at them. All the love in the universe filled God's eyes. God smiled.

"I call it a baby."

The man and the woman went away with their new love holder. They loved and laughed. They poured all the extra love they had into the baby.

They were so happy with the baby that they thanked God every day. They told God what a wonderful creation this was. This was finally the very thing they needed to hold their love.

One night, when everything was quiet and the baby was asleep, the woman called to God. She told God that because the baby was such a wonderful and special love holder, she thought maybe everyone should have one.

"That's a great idea!" God said. "As soon as I figure out where to put all of these fish, I'll get right on it..."
... the beginning.

Try making a love holder...

Take a jar, tin or plastic container and paste pictures of all the things you love onto the container in a collage. Use the container to store neat things that remind you of those that love you: cards, photos, letters, flowers, seashells - I am sure you will find it in no time!

The narration of this story and others by Rob Neves are also available in CD format. Click here for more information.