Unconditional Love Through Grace
I met the most amazing woman when I was just a child. It was my mother. She always had the most amazing ability to love people in spite of how they treated her. I never really could understand it as a child and even more so as I grew into adulthood. This woman had many terrible things to happen to her throughout her lifetime. She was abandoned as a child of 11 by her father. She then was needed to help raise her 4 younger siblings, the youngest being 1 year old, since her mom had to work evenings. She told stories of having school work, homework, cooking, and cleaning duties when most of us were outside playing with our friends. Never once did I ever hear my mother complain about this. It was a way of life for her and one she embraced with love.
She met my father when she was 16 years old and within 2 weeks they were married. She was married one day and the next was on a bus to Oklahoma. One thousand miles away from all the people and places she knew. The only person she knew was my dad, and that wasn’t much since she had only known him for a couple of weeks. Within 2 days of arriving in Oklahoma, my father was transferred to Korea. He had just recently graduated from boot camp in the US Air Force. He left my mother, his new bride with his mother and sisters in Oklahoma. Needless to say, my aunts were very unkind to my mom and treated her horribly. My grandmother was an alcoholic and was abusive as well when she was drinking which was most of the time. My mom would clean and cook for the family and wait for my dad to return. She missed her mom and her babies (as she always referred to her siblings). She wanted to go home but could not due to finances.
She received two letters from my dad begging her to hang on and wait for him. She did.
Six months after my father first stepped onto the plane on his way to Korea, he was brought home on a stretcher from Korea. He has suffered a debilitating disease while in Korea. Some in his barracks had actually died. My father recovered, but was paralyzed from his arms down. He left weighing 240 pounds and standing 6 ft. 4 in. He returned weighing 93 pounds. He was unable to stand, walk, or care for himself. Most of us, myself included, would have run like the wind back to where we had come from. Not my mom! She told us many times, I loved your dad and I promised to take care of him in sickness and in health. She assisted him with rehabilitation and helped him learn to walk again and retaught him how to use his hands.
The next phase of their married life led to endured misery. Due to dad’s disability, money was tight. Tensions were extremely high and both turned to the bottle for the answer. It is all they knew since both came from alcoholic families. Along with the drinking came fighting and instability. I never attended the same school during the school year until my Sophomore year of high school. We moved back and forth between Oklahoma and Illinois so many times I cannot count. Many times it was because my parents would separate. A whirlwind for sure. Yet my mother always loved my dad and stayed with him. There were extramarital affairs, yet my mother would always forgive him and take him back. I was furious, yet she would remind me that God was her constant companion and he had given her the grace to forgive. I was taught that in life people will fail you and make mistakes, but God will never leave you or fail you. John 14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Thankfully, the Lord got a hold of my parents. My father surrendered to the Lord as a minister when I was 13 years old. From that time on, my parents taught what a true marriage should look like. In closing I just want to say that the lesson of love I was provided throughout my childhood might not look like love to many of you, but it was. It was the kind of love that was built on the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. My mother had accepted the Lord as her Savior when she was 7 months pregnant with me. God gave her such an amazing, overload of love. It was His love and His eyes that she viewed people and her circumstances through. She loved people; those who ridiculed her, mistreated her, talked about her, despised her, and abused her. Jesus has the same kind of love, but even more abundantly than I have described here. He was despised, ridiculed, beaten, spit upon, beard pulled out and much more, yet he continued to love us unconditionally. So much love that he gave his life for all – not just those who believe – but for all who might believe. The Bible speaks in John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. In John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish , but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved .
Would you like to know this kind of love? It is amazing; the amazing, loving Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ! He will give you a love that passes all understanding! May the Lord receive All Glory and All Praise!
She met my father when she was 16 years old and within 2 weeks they were married. She was married one day and the next was on a bus to Oklahoma. One thousand miles away from all the people and places she knew. The only person she knew was my dad, and that wasn’t much since she had only known him for a couple of weeks. Within 2 days of arriving in Oklahoma, my father was transferred to Korea. He had just recently graduated from boot camp in the US Air Force. He left my mother, his new bride with his mother and sisters in Oklahoma. Needless to say, my aunts were very unkind to my mom and treated her horribly. My grandmother was an alcoholic and was abusive as well when she was drinking which was most of the time. My mom would clean and cook for the family and wait for my dad to return. She missed her mom and her babies (as she always referred to her siblings). She wanted to go home but could not due to finances.
She received two letters from my dad begging her to hang on and wait for him. She did.
Six months after my father first stepped onto the plane on his way to Korea, he was brought home on a stretcher from Korea. He has suffered a debilitating disease while in Korea. Some in his barracks had actually died. My father recovered, but was paralyzed from his arms down. He left weighing 240 pounds and standing 6 ft. 4 in. He returned weighing 93 pounds. He was unable to stand, walk, or care for himself. Most of us, myself included, would have run like the wind back to where we had come from. Not my mom! She told us many times, I loved your dad and I promised to take care of him in sickness and in health. She assisted him with rehabilitation and helped him learn to walk again and retaught him how to use his hands.
The next phase of their married life led to endured misery. Due to dad’s disability, money was tight. Tensions were extremely high and both turned to the bottle for the answer. It is all they knew since both came from alcoholic families. Along with the drinking came fighting and instability. I never attended the same school during the school year until my Sophomore year of high school. We moved back and forth between Oklahoma and Illinois so many times I cannot count. Many times it was because my parents would separate. A whirlwind for sure. Yet my mother always loved my dad and stayed with him. There were extramarital affairs, yet my mother would always forgive him and take him back. I was furious, yet she would remind me that God was her constant companion and he had given her the grace to forgive. I was taught that in life people will fail you and make mistakes, but God will never leave you or fail you. John 14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Thankfully, the Lord got a hold of my parents. My father surrendered to the Lord as a minister when I was 13 years old. From that time on, my parents taught what a true marriage should look like. In closing I just want to say that the lesson of love I was provided throughout my childhood might not look like love to many of you, but it was. It was the kind of love that was built on the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. My mother had accepted the Lord as her Savior when she was 7 months pregnant with me. God gave her such an amazing, overload of love. It was His love and His eyes that she viewed people and her circumstances through. She loved people; those who ridiculed her, mistreated her, talked about her, despised her, and abused her. Jesus has the same kind of love, but even more abundantly than I have described here. He was despised, ridiculed, beaten, spit upon, beard pulled out and much more, yet he continued to love us unconditionally. So much love that he gave his life for all – not just those who believe – but for all who might believe. The Bible speaks in John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. In John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish , but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved .
Would you like to know this kind of love? It is amazing; the amazing, loving Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ! He will give you a love that passes all understanding! May the Lord receive All Glory and All Praise!