My son broke his arm this week. He is 2 years old now, so I suppose it was just a matter of time before we took this rite of passage into boyhood. It is official now, I am the mother of a rough and tumble little boy. What’s funny is that my son is actually quite cautious in nature. He’s never been a climber, doesn’t try to run in the road and avoids things that look dangerous. I really thought he was the last kid that would break a bone, but here we are. He is wearing his purple cast like a badge of honor. One tough cookie. Yesterday, we were waiting in the orthopedic office when I heard an unusual sound. I looked up and from our room could see into the hallway where a prisoner was being led past us into another examining room. The sound I heard was the shackles and chains he was bound by. As he walked, more shuffled, along I could hear the chains clanging together. He was dressed in a full orange jumpsuit with a label in bold black letters across his back naming him a prisoner of the county jail. A captive. Typically, my first response would be one of judgment, wondering what he did to get in there and irritation of why “someone like him” was being brought in such close quarters with the rest of us. Perhaps, the Holy Spirit is making some breakthroughs in the hard places of my heart because I thought neither. My response was an overwhelming feeling of knowing God loves him. God loves him. He loves him the exact same way he loves me; the exact same way he loves my little purple cast wearing 2 year old. He loves him. Oh how he loves each one of his children. He loves us not for what we’ve done, nor what we’ve failed to do. He just simply, constantly, without reason, loves us. I sat there breathless, in wonder of my God who sets no restrictions and no requirements on this Great Love. I know of it; this love. But I fail to comprehend it, rarely give it and struggle to accept it. Our human minds, in all their complexity still strive to conceive of a love that knows no conditions. See God loves this prisoner now, even in his chains, the same way he will love him in eternity. I too often think I’m earning some merit badge of love here on Earth. I strive as if God’s love and favor are dependent upon my actions. God has chosen, for reasons only He knows, to bless us right now with this business. As it grows and our territory expands, it is so easy to start to think we are doing something great. We are making a difference most certainly and we are making an impact for His kingdom by following His leading and it is spectacular, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to what awaits us in eternity. This life is but a mist, a vapor that appears for just a moment and is gone. What awaits us is unfathomable. In the end, God will have loved me the same here as he does there. He loved me when I walked in chains, before I knew him and he will cover me with the same blanket of love when I gaze into his face in Heaven. I will never earn it nor be worthy of it. Today, whether you sit in shackles and chains or you are following God’s leading to a call bigger than you, know you are loved. You are equally, completely and abundantly loved.
James 4:14, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:10