Accidental Love

May 25, 2024 by  
Filed under Personal Growth

Tomorrow I would turn sixteen. Today, I was running errands with my Mom in her car. I was driving through an intersection when another car slammed into us, pushing us into a telephone pole. My head hit the rearview mirror and split the bridge of my nose wide open. The car was totaled. After thirteen stitches and a citation for running a yellow light, which to this day I don't remember seeing, I found myself sitting at home; waiting for my Dad.

My Dad was a schoolteacher and I knew money was tight. I had just wrecked the family car, racked up a huge bill at the hospital, and I knew enough to know that accidents send teenage driver's insurance through the roof. I heard my Dad's footsteps as he walked up to the front door, and as he entered the stress of waiting for his fury overcame me. All I could mumble through my tears was, “Daddy, I'm so sorry.”
He then walked over to me and lifted my chin with his hand. “All that matters is that you are okay, cars can be replaced,” he said with a wink and a smile. My Dad grew ten feet that day because of the unconditional love he showed a worried sixteen year old. God has this same kind of love for you and me.

Unconditional love is such a hard concept for us to comprehend because we, by nature, attach strings to everything. We filter our love through our expectations, our view of right and wrong, and our own needs. God's love knows none of these boundaries. He loves us in the purest sense and desires only what is good for us. He loves us so much that He was even willing to lay down His life for us. His love is so deep, so wide, and so perfect that we cannot possibly understand it, yet He offers that love freely, if only we will receive.

PRAYER: God, I praise you for Your gift of love, and for continuing to offer that love in spite of my unworthiness.  Help me to fully receive Your unconditional love, and to learn how to show this kind of love to others around me today.

“…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God,” Ephesians 3:17-19 NET.

Today’s devotion is by Cheri Cowell, Asbury Theological Seminary student, known as author and speaker on the deep questions of faith.  Her first book Direction: Discernment for the Decisions of Your Life (Beacon Hill) is being called a biblically-sound, no nonsense approach to making God-centered life choices.  For comments or to inquire about her speaking schedule, visit www.DirectionAndDiscernment.com/.

 

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