It’s all about Love

For years I remember checking the post on the 14th February for any cards someone (anyone!) might have sent me. Then one glorious day I actually received a card.  Frustratingly it was anonymously signed with a question mark.  I’m still none the wiser!

It is strange looking back how self-possessed such hopes were, yet as we grow so does our capacity to love. From the child who says “I love you” because they are kept warm, safe and fed, to the adult who tells the young child they love them despite being kept awake all night. As we mature our love becomes more giving and more inclusive.

The thing that amazes me, now my children are all grown-up, is that you don’t stop being a parent, their hurts are still my hurts, their problems are still mine. The wonder of being a parent is you bring them up, nurture them so they can leave home, to hopefully be able to bring up their own families. It is a rewarding journey.

In the end love is about giving. What will we give to those we love? I gave a kidney to one of my children. When the doctor said I had a 1 in 9000 chance of dying in the operation it seemed a cheap price to pay to save a life. Jesus said “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  This was an incredible and immeasurable self-giving love for other people – Jesus putting himself last, not first, to save others; and God loving us so much that he allowed it to happen.

So there’s one thing I am certain, unlike the teenager hoping for a card on Valentine’s day, I know that God does love me.  He loves me with an unrelenting love that He extends to all – what’s more it’s a love that’s not anonymous!

Useful passage to look up: John ch15 vs12-14.

Photo's by Jesse Goll and Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash