Scripture of the Week Isaiah 49:15-16 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. 16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my
hands; thy walls are continually before me.
Greetings to all my brothers and
sisters in Christ!
I am convinced
that God has one quirky sense of humor. Just look
at the different kinds of people He created! We've
got people who squeak when they walk, who are fascinated
by protein molecules and who enjoy eating parts of
animals I would rather not look at. Some people like
computers, others like llamas. One may worship God
by dancing around the house to their iPod, while another
kneels quietly on his living room carpet with his
head covered. And that's just my family and friends--WEIRDOS!
Sometimes I just don't understand them, but I love
them. And so it should be with the rest of the world.
Nerdy,
disgusting, spacey, loud, disorganized, dreamy,
rigid, weird wonderful people! No matter what
we think of other people's quirks and oddities,
those are the things that make them... well,
themselves. And God loves them passionately.
Just as much as He loves you and your weirdness.
Isn't that amazing?
My
little children, let us not love in word or
in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3:18
Still, there are always going to be people
out there that rub us the wrong way. So I ask myself:
if God loves them just as they are, why don't I? This
is an especially important question, because God commands
us to love our brothers, sisters, strangers and even
our enemies. John 13:34 says, “A new commandment
I give you, that you love one another; as I haved
loved you, that also love one another.” He loves
us a lot. It's easy to love our friends, “But
if you love those who love you, what credit to you?
For even sinners love those who love them.”
(Luke 6:32) So here is a question: how can
we love someone that we don't even like?
C.S. Lewis answers this question in his book, Mere
Christianity (I encourage you to read it!) His
answer also lines with 1 John 3:18. “The rule
for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time
bothering whether
you 'love' your neighbor; act as if you did.
As soon as we do this we find one of the great
secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved
someone, you will presently come to love him...
The worldly man treats certain people kindly
because he 'likes' them: the Christian, trying
to treat everyone kindly, finds himself liking
more and more people as he goes on - including
people he could not even have imagined himself
liking at the beginning.” So what do
we do when we don't feel like we love them?
“Act as if you did”
Jesus said, “By
this all will know that you are my disciples,
if have love for one another” (John
13:35)
