GOD’s Unconditional Love
Unconditional love on the human level is an impossibility. Every gift we give, every act of love, carries ties more subtle than strands of gossamer.
As donors, we expect gratitude, we expect there to be a pay off in a bettered relationship. When we do not get these responses we grumble, even if it is an inward complaint.
We are surprised when these things do not occur.
As recipients, we feel constrained to reciprocate the love. We feel we have been obligated and we even often resent the obligation placed on us by the loving actions of others.
Some gifts are burdensome because we do not wish to cultivate the relationship that the gift presupposes we have, and the intimacy to which the gift calls us may make impossible demands on an already overloaded schedule!
These gossamer strands form the web of our social interactions. Some are soft and downy and delightful; others are hard and abrasive as razor wire. No action can be free from these considerations.
The problem is then transferred to our relationship with our heavenly Father. We never feel quite comfortable with His love.
We always feel that He requires some performance in return. When we disappoint Him, we usually feel that we can only make it up by some noble act of penance or by going through some rigorous discipline, either self-imposed or inflicted by Him as a punishment.
In order to understand the intense depth of His grace, we have to shake off the shackles of our human interactions and begin each day with the foreign but exhilarating reality: “GOD LOVES ME UNCONDITIONALLY!” My work does not make Him love me more, and my failures do not make Him love me less. He loves me perfectly IN Christ. The key is to be IN CHRIST. That is a gift to be accepted, not a performance that earns His favor.
May He grant you the joy of communion.
May the Holy Spirit cause you to shed the chains that bind you in human relationships, and may He teach you to enjoy the unconditional love of God.
progressingpeople 