Love

I know that love can be a cheap word. A movie ends with a guy saying to a girl, “I love you” and then everything is somehow OK. A slogan says “Make love, not war” which cheapens love to a physical act born out of lust. People assure us, “God loves you” and we have heard it so often that both God and love are out there in a void with no connection to reality. So we are cynical.

Yet we do need to hear that we are loved, that someone really cares when we are hurting, that people share our happiness and joys, that one will actually put our needs and desires ahead of theirs, that we are not judged for everything we do.

I've met two women recently who had almost the same stories. They were 21 and 18 years old and had been adopted. One had a birth mother who had children with multiple partners and who kept having children even when she knew she would never raise them. And that women was pregnant again. The other had three brothers and sisters who were mentally challenged and adopted out. But this girl was normal and actually seemed to me to be very bright. She didn't know why she was the lucky one.

Both had mothers who had adopted them, who loved them and whom they loved back. Both understood that they needed to forgive their birth mothers and that the bitterness they had toward them would only hurt themselves. Yet even knowing this they struggled to do so. The one with the challenged siblings had recently contacted her mother for the first time and said that her mother “just lied to her” so there was no sense talking with her again.

A thought then occurred to me. I shared with this woman that perhaps her birth mother never had anyone who would love her unconditionally, who would tell her she was loved without expecting anything in return, who would be there without judging. “Perhaps you can be that person” I said.

Love does not make wrong right but it always desires the best for us. It hurts when we hurt. It aches when we fall short. But it gets it's reward when we trudge through the mud and achieve those little victories.

There is One who loves you, Who wants the best for you, Who loves without conditions. He sent His only Son to die for you even though He knows that you are a liar and a rebel. You have done and can do nothing to earn that love.

His love will change you if you only soften your heart so it can go where you were always destined to go. His love will mold you and heal you and strengthen you to endure all of life's challenges. After all, you are not alone. He loves you.