My first grade Valentine's Party was a humiliating disaster. All the students were given sheets of red and pink construction paper for designing gigantic heart envelopes. On the day of the party we all exchanged Valentine's Day cards, each student taking turns placing their cards in one another's handmade mailbox.
I tore into my cards with excitement, in awe of all the hearts and little candies tucked into the envelopes. One by one I noticed a pattern of everyone's card addressed to me. In childlike writing was the same thing: a simple "to and from."
Little snickers, whispers and awkward glances darted towards me when each classmate arrived at my card and read my signature. On the back of every card I wrote: "I love you, Danna"
"You weren't supposed to write that!" the teacher snatched up my cards, "It's not appropriate."
Choking back the tears I ran to the bathroom and sat in the stall. After school I suffered more finger pointing and kids making faces at me.
That was my first "love disaster." The second one was my first marriage. You guessed it -- a Valentine's Day wedding, complete with a bouquet of red, pink and white silk roses and a headdress to match. A handsome husband who would betray me in the end.
The older I get, the easier it is to love my family and friends. Not a day goes by that I don't say or show love at least a hundred times or more.
However, ask me to love the unlovable and it's just not that easy. It seems virtually impossible to love someone that has caused severe devastation and pain, maliciously gossiped, or rejected me for someone or something better.
But Christ did just that. No greater love has any man than to lay his life down for a friend. In the Book of Mathew, questions get a little rough: For if you love only those who love you, what reward have you earned? Mathew 5:46
He's right of course. We are called to love the unlovable, even if we don't want to. We aren't commanded to enjoy it, but in the big picture the rewards are eternal.
Unconditional love is loving even when someone trespasses against you. It's forgiveness-- even when the stakes are so high that you think you'll never get past the humiliation of that first time you experienced rejection, loss or maybe even sanity.
If your unconditional love isn't good enough for the unlovable, I really want to be the first to say, "Who cares?" More than anything else, your dignity is safe with God.
You cannot out give or out love God, but it doesn't hurt to try. "Your Father who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
Click Here: Love you So Much! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqXAQgbZEog&feature=related
