I Choose to Love Them

I look at this family member I dislike so much.

This person who has repeatedly and intentionally hurt and used me.

And I think how could anyone expect me to love someone so detestable?

 

But then a small still voice whispers,

“the same way I could love you,

not because you deserve it

but because love conquers all

and covers a multitude of sins.”

 

…and in that moment I’m brought back to the reality of my salvation.

A reality that forces me to remember it’s not about whether they are good enough to be loved.

It’s about whether or not I am willing to love just because I have the chance.

So I choose to.

Not because I’m anything special but because by loving them I share with them a small portion of what my Savior, Jesus, gave me.

And in that moment we both glimpse Heaven.

Who knows but that loving them just one more time or showing His love again might be the time they finally get it?

The time they finally see the love of Christ shining through me.

 

And then I remember –  they’re broken, too.

They’re in need of a Savior to rescue them.

To heal them.

To save them from themselves.

Their actions are just symptoms.

Symptoms of a need for the same Savior I so desperately need to heal me, to restore me, to deliver me from myself.

 

And then- then it isn’t so hard to love them.

To feel compassion.

To hurt for them.

To pray for them.

To ask my Savior to reach out and be their Savior.

 

In that moment when I am kneeling before the throne, asking the King of King and Lord of Lords to have compassion on them and show them His love for them, I get a taste of His love for me.

And a picture of His love for them.

In that moment it isn’t hard to love them at all.

 

So I choose to love them.

To once more reach out to them with His love, confident that in so doing, I am doing what is best for both of us.

I am choosing to share Christ and the love He has for both of us.

 

I choose love.

 

 

(This post originally appeared on my previous blog, which is no longer available)