The very first human to love me unconditionally was my Mother. I was created under less than ideal circumstances, but I was loved from the very moment my mother knew I was there. Hers is a love that sharpened my mind, encouraged my interests, helped to heal wounds, and understood my heart. She taught me love for family and love for home and does her best to respect our differences therein. It would be my honor to be as good a mother as mine is. She is unconditional.
Dad and I have a relationship that is a little more complex and a little more strained. We battle wills and battle wits. He pushes and challenges me. But, when I have faltered and fallen, my Dad has been there to speak wisdom to me. He gently, but firmly, coaxes me to move out of the despair I am in and continue on my way. There is no choice I could make or word that I could say that would sway my Dad's love for me. He is unconditional.
I met my Sister when I was 3 and a half. I wish I could say we were fast friends, but we weren't. Our younger days were full of the rivalry that is typical among siblings. Now that we are adults, she is one of the best friends I have. She always listens and always cares. In times when I have made a misstep or questioned my own judgement, she does not heap blame on me. On the other end of the phone, she is there to help me process through it and encourage me to trust myself...and to tell a hilarious story to completely distract me from my self centered pity party. My Sister would go to the ends of the earth for me...and I her. She is unconditional.
I've been with the man who is my Husband for nearly 10 years. His love for me is strong and unwavering. We have faced many tough days in our short time together and through all of them he is still there, smiling at me like I am someone special. Some days I feel like I've brought nothing but pain and complication to his life. But, every day, he assures me that he does not regret marrying me. I don't know what I could possibly have to offer him to deserve such unfaltering love...but I have it anyway. My Husband's love is unconditional.
In my life I have been blessed with an amazing handful of close friends. In my younger days there was a group of girls who loved me, despite the fact that nearly everyone else considered me unlovable. They cared, listened, laughed, and grew with me. Though time has moved us far apart, I still look back on those friends and know that we left imprints on each other's hearts. They are unconditional.
During college I found a group of friends who walked with me just as my depression was starting to show itself in ugly ways. They prayed for me, they instructed me, they were "for" me. These women, upon hearing my heartache about not having 16 candles on my 16th birthday cake, decided to set my 19th birthday cake ablaze with 100 candles! My college friends were there to strengthen my heart and my faith when they both faltered and failed. Again, time has moved us apart...as time will do...but they are an integral part of my story, woven into the fabric of my soul. My friends from college are unconditional.
Today I enjoy a deep, rich, friendship with another group of women. I have no secrets from them. They know everything there is to know about me from my favorite fragrance to my vilest sin. We have clocked hundreds of hours of deep conversation and thousands of hours of laughter. These are the women who helped plan my wedding, attended my sons' births (some only in spirit), cried with me when I miscarried, and carefully wrapped their arms around me when my world fell apart. We've been separated by the greatest of distances, but we would not grow apart. These are the women who will speak at my funeral when my time comes to die. Strike Force is unconditional.
There is no good reason why these people love me so thoroughly. I've never been anything but taxing on their spirits and could never hope to repay even a fraction of the love they've shown me. It's a love that doesn't make sense. Since it defies explanation, I am left with one conclusion... these people, these men, these women, who love me for no good reason must be loving me with a supernatural love.
I submit that, through the hands, eyes, words, tears, silence, of these relationships, an invisible God is revealing His Love to me. Because of them I worship. It's not the people that I worship, they are only human. Instead I worship the only God who can birth true love in the hearts if men. I worship the God who whispers to me that His Love is stronger, truer, more complete than any love I have ever known. Jesus is the Ultimate Unconditional.
As we celebrate this holiday of love, I invite you to look back on your life and see who has loved you...who is loving you this very day. Be thankful for them. Consider seeing them a gift from the hands of a God who loves you...unconditionally.
No comments:
Post a Comment