Marvelous Love by Bill Bright
On a cold Christmas Eve in 1952,
when Korea was in the throes of civil war, one young woman struggled along a
village street, obviously soon to deliver a child. She pleaded with passersby,
"Help me! Please. My
baby."
No one paid any attention to her.
A middle-aged couple walked by.
The wife pushed away the young mother and sneered,
"Where's the father? Where's
your American man now?"
The couple laughed and went on.
The young woman almost doubled up
from a contraction as she watched them go.
"Please . . ." she
begged.
She had heard of a missionary
living nearby who might help her. Hurriedly, she began walking to that village.
If only he would help her baby. Shivering and in pain, she struggled over the
frozen countryside. But the night was so cold. Snow began to fall. Realizing
that the time was near to deliver her baby, she took shelter under a bridge.
There, alone, her baby was born on Christmas Eve.
Worried about her newborn son,
she took off her own clothes, wrapped them around the baby and held him close
in the warm circle of her arms.
The next day, the missionary
braved the new snow to deliver Christmas packages. As he walked along, he heard
the cry of a baby. He followed the sound to a bridge. Under it, he found a young
mother frozen to death, still clutching her crying new born son. The missionary
tenderly lifted the baby out of her arms.
When the baby was 10 years old,
his now adoptive father told him the story of his mother's death on Christmas
Eve.
The young boy cried, realizing
the sacrifice his mother had made for him.
The next morning, the missionary
rose early to find the boy's bed empty. Seeing a fresh set of small footprints
in the snow outside, he bundled up warmly in a winter coat and followed the
trail. It led back to the bridge where the young mother had died.
As the missionary approached the
bridge, he stopped, stunned. Kneeling in the snow was his son, naked and
shivering uncontrollably. His clothes lay beside him in a small pile. Moving
closer, he heard the boy say through chattering teeth:
"Mother, were you this cold
for me?"
That story reminds me of another
mother and Son who sacrificed so much. One winter night, Jesus left his home,
His glory and the warmth of heaven to be born in a stable to an unwelcome
world. Just before He was born, Mary, His mother, was not welcome in any of the
cozy inns in Bethlehem. Instead, she delivered her baby in the darkness of a
cold stable. Th e Creator of the Universe, the Perfect Judge who could destroy
the world with a single word, was willing to endure this inauspicious beginning
for you and me. That is unconditional love!
We who have experienced God's
unconditional love are commanded to share that love with others. John writes in
1 John 4:11,
"Dear friends, since God loved
us that much, we surely ought to love each other" (New Living
Translation).
God wants us to express His
supernatural love to others. We become examples of God's love to the world as
we love our neighbors through the enabling of His Holy Spirit.
My prayer for you is the same as
Paul's prayer for the believers in Ephesians 3:17,18:
"May your roots go down deep
in to the soil of God's marvelous love. And may you have the power to
understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how
deep His love really is" (NLT ) .
You may confess, "I don't
have that kind of love to share with anyone." To experience God's
supernatural love, claim it by faith. We have the potential to love anyone God
puts in our path. One of the greatest lessons I have learned in my Christian
life is "how to love by faith."
When we by faith invite God's
unconditional love to flow through us, we will discover a rekindled love that
is alive and well. That is true for an "unlovable" spouse, boss,
employee, or anyone.
Nothing breaks the hardened ground of unforgiveness and
bitterness like sincere acts and words of love. Sometimes you and I, by faith,
must take the first step of restoration. A positive response may not be
immediate, but keep on loving and reaching out. There is no power on earth
stronger than God's supernatural love.
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