~May Your Light Shine :D~

Saturday, May 27, 2006

This post is going to be from a chapter of the book by Max Lucado as mentioned in my previous post. I am blogging this because I feel that it really echoed what was in my heart. Please do try to read the whole thing…

God, I have a question: Why do you love us? I don’t want to sound irreverent, but only heaven knows how much pain we’re brought you. Why do you tolerate us? You give us every breath we breathe, but do we thank you? You give us bodies beyond duplication, but do we praise you?

Seldom.

We complain about the weather. We bicker about our toys. We argue over who gets which continent and who has the best gender. Not a second passes when someone, somewhere, doesn’t use your name to curse a hammered thumb or a bad call by the umpire. (As if it were your fault.)

You fill the world with food, but we blame you for hunger. You keep the earth from tilting and the arctics from thawing, but we accuse you of unconcern. You give us blue skies, and we demand rain. You give rain, and we demand sun. (As if we knew what was best anyway).

We give more applause to a brawny ball-carrier than we do to the God who made us. We sing more songs to the moon than to the Christ who saved us. We are a gnat on the tail of one elephant in a galaxy of Africas, and yet we demand that you find us a parking place when we ask. And if you don’t give us what we want, we say you don’t exist. (As if our opinion matters.)

We pollute the world you loan us. We mistreat the bodies you gave us. We ignore the Word you send us. And we killed the Son you became. We are spoiled babies who take and kick and pout and blaspheme.

You have every reason to abandon us.

I sure I would! I would wash my hands of the whole mess and start over on Mars. But do you?

I see the answer in the rising of the sun. I hear the answer in the crashing of the waves. I feel the answer in the skin of a child.

Father, your love never ceases. Never. Though we spurn you, ignore you. Disobey you, you will not change. Our evil cannot diminish your love. Our goodness cannot increase it. Our faith foes not earn it anymore than our stupidity jeopardizes it. You don’t love us less if we fail. You don’t love us more if we succeed.

Your love never ceases.

How do we explain it?

Perhaps the answer is found in yet another question.

Moms: Why do you love your newborn?

For months this baby has brought you pain. He/she made you break out in pimples and waddle like a duck. Because of him you craved sardines and crackers and threw up in the morning. He punched you in the tummy. He occupied space that wasn’t his and ate food he didn’t fix.

You kept him warm. You kept him safe. You kept him fed. But did he say thank you?

Are you kidding? He’s no more out of the womb that he starts to cry! The room is too cold, the blanket is too rough, the nurse is too mean. And who does he want? Mom.

Don’t you ever get a break? I mean who has been doing the work the last 9 months? What can’t Dad take over? But no, Dad won’t do. The baby wants Mom.

He didn’t even tell you he was coming. He just came. And what a coming! He rendered you a barbarian. You screamed. You swore. You bit bullets and tore the sheets. And now look at you. Your back aches. Your head pounds. Your body is drenched in sweat. Every muscle strained and stretched.

You should be angry, but are you?

Far from it. On your face is a for-longer-than-forever love. He has done nothing for you; yet you love him. He’s brought pain to your body and nausea to your morning, yet you treasure him. His face is wrinkled and his eyes are dim, yet all you can talk about are his good looks and bright future. He’s going to you up every night for the next 6 weeks, but that doesn’t matter. I can see it on your face. You’re crazy about her.

Why?

Why does a mother love her newborn? Because the baby is hers? Even more. Because the baby us her flesh and blood. Her hope. Her legacy. It bothers her not that the baby gives nothing. She knows a newborn is helpless, weak. She knows babies don’t ask to come into this world.

And God knows we didn’t either.

We are his idea. We are his. His face. His eyes. His hands. His touch. We are him. Look deeply into the face of every human being on earth and you will see his likeness. Though some appear to be distant relatives, they are not. God has no cousins, only children.

We are, incredibly, the body of Christ. And though we may not act like our Father, there is no greater truth than this: we are his. Unalterably. He loves us. Undyingly. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8:38-39).

Gad God not said those words, I would be a fool to write them. But since he did, I’m a fool not to believe them. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ… but how difficult it is for some to embrace this truth.

You think you’ve committed an act that places you outside his love. A treason. A betrayal. An aborted promise. You think he would love you more if you hadn’t done it, right? You think he would love you more if you did more, right? You think if you were better his love would be deeper right?

WRONG!

God’s love is not human. His love is not normal. His love sees your sin and loves you still. Does he approve of your error? No. Do you need to repent? Yes. But do you repent for his sake or yours? Yours. His ego needs no apology. His love needs no bolstering.

And he could not love you more than he does right now.

Do I hear an ‘Amen?’

Lydea blogged at 12:05 PM

May your light shine...
in the darkness...