For a moment I forgot myself and then great things happened for those around me.  I loved me enough to quiet my wanton furnace long enough to quench my Brother’s sandy thirst, my Sister’s spiritual cry for help, my Mother’s unmet need.  I rested in God’s love for me and found that providing food for strangers satiated my ambition.  I had inherited an honest love not born of self recrimination but understanding that God’s perspective on me must be right.

It maddens me with curiosity to ponder God’s love for us as impetus to die such a tragic death in our stead.  He didn’t only think of us, which in itself is unintelligible, but actually planned, undertook and personally executed the only action capable of buying us back from enslavement to the devil.  These thoughts sponsor and require life-long contemplation.

Is there repayment for such love, perhaps?  Does it lay within giving of myself, time, assets and love, maybe?  What about me?  What about my ability to take away someone’s pain by loving them right where they are?  No requirements, no questions, no expectations, just love?  And somewhere in that mix forgiveness belongs as precedent, for harboring of grudges inhibits my receipt of God’s love and dissemination of the same.

What does it mean to give love freely?  Not some worldly understanding of sexually comity, pep talks and superficial understanding, but real sacrifice, shared suffering or simple unselfish outreach.  What about caring enough to tell them about the coming judgment and how to find salvation from the wrath to come?  Is that the most loving thing we can do without expectation of becoming a member of my church, donating money to my charity or becoming a feather in my Christian-social bonnet?  What about the man that we would never see again unless we took that minute to tell him about Jesus and somehow it effected change resulting in him welcoming you to Heaven’s blessing?  What might be God’s perspective on this subject, have you researched in His Word and asked Him to teach you?  What about me, what can I do for humanity that would demonstrate my love for the Lord while proving my love for myself?