There was nothing, absolutely nothing that George needed to
do in order for us to love him or love him any more than we already did. We loved him simply for who he was. We loved him for being our piggy, doing all
the normal piggy things like eating, sleeping, floating in the kiddie pool, bouncing across our back yard
into his piggy heaven, and playing with other piggies in our neighborhood. We loved him for his fur and yawns and
sneezes and for the way he would lay down his head when he was resting. He didn't need to earn or maintain our love by cleaning his cage or being less messy, or
becoming more like his absolutely perfect girlfriend Tinkerbell. We delighted in him the way God
created him, in his sweet laid-back personality that seemed to put everyone who
came near him at wonderful ease.
When I reflect on all this, it makes me want to stop and ask
myself a question:
If our capacity for
love towards a tailless rodent that we neither invented nor created is such
that it overflowed our lives, isn't then God’s love towards me and you all the more
free, and glorious and uncontaminated by merchandising spirit so often present in what
is mistakenly called ‘love’ in our broken world?
The implications of the question actually puts me to shame,
for I know very well that my capacity for love is extremely limited, tainted by
often hidden self-serving motives and frequently influenced by other factors that
have little to do with love. But, even
from this imperfect vantage point, I can get a tiny, microscopic glimpse into
the vastness and perfection of God’s amazing love and the foolishness of my
puny efforts to earn it or keep it.
Our lives are bookmarked by God’s love – the beginning, the
end, and everything in between
(Romans 8:38,39) . Passionate, personal,
relentless love of God revealed to us in His Son Jesus. There is nothing we can do to add to it. There is nothing we can do to earn it. Just receive and keep receiving it in simple
faith. Moment by moment. Day by day.
For by grace you have
been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9
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