How Do You Love??

I was struck tonight by three different ways of loving. Yeah, there's something special about loving your kids...loving your spouse...loving your pets. But tonight...tonight I saw three very special ways of loving.

Our church has an event called Romance and Roses every year for Valentine's. There's dinner, a program, giveaways, connecting time with your spouse, and lots of inspiration and laughter. Well, my friend Tiff and I were at a table selling tickets for that on Sunday. A young girl, who we didn't know the age of at the time but found out tonight that she's an 8th grader, came up to the table inquiring about R&R. She had been coming to church with a friend for a while now and thought this might be a good way to get her parents to come to something. She walked away, but came back a few minutes later. Tiff talked with her some more and the girl pulled out some money (her own money) and bought a ticket for her parents. That, in and of itself, was amazing to us. But then tonight, our associate pastor Kyle shared that the girl brought back the ticket because her dad was going out of town this weekend and her parents wouldn't be able to make it. She was offered a refund, but declined and simply said she wanted to give back the ticket and wanted for it to be given to someone else who could go. What a gift......from an 8th grader...AMAZING!

Matthew and I have had several play dates with a lady in our Women's SS Class and her son Joshua. She is a single mom going through a divorce and Joshua is an only child. They just recently started coming to our church in December from a MUCH smaller church. Joshua is having a really hard time adjusting to our big new church. So his mom reached out for help and somehow Matthew and I found them. That's the background. On to the specifics of tonight....Joshua's mom met me in the hall after service and wanted to tell me about what Matthew did. Uh-oh, I thought. Really, my first instinct was that he had said something he maybe shouldn't have said. But she told me about how hard it was to get Joshua to church tonight....how he begged not to come....how, even after seeing Matthew, he didn't want to stay. Then she started tearing up and telling me what a special little boy my Matthew was because he wouldn't give up on Joshua. He spent about 10 minutes trying to coax Joshua into sitting with him, making funny faces at him, telling him how much fun they were going to have together tonight. It was one of the mommy moments that makes your heart swell. I gave Matthew a big hug when I tucked him in and told him how proud I was. I shared with him what Joshua's mom had told me. And I explained to him that what he did was so special because it was exactly the kind of thing that makes God smile....that that's one of the very important things about being at church...loving people...being friends to someone who is struggling...taking a genuine interest in making a difference for someone. What an amazing, sweet, and sensitive spirit God has blessed us with in Matthew!

Number 3.....we have a communion service the first Wed of each month. Kyle talked about rituals and how they were designed by God (go read Leviticus 23), but how we couldn't get hung up with the act of the ritual and forget the end result...what the ritual signified. I must admit that I have been guilty of getting caught up in the ritual of communion before. But tonight, God was so gracious to touch me in a new and fresh way! I wept as I thanked him for all He is to me and how He has chosen to bless me over and over, even in the midst of my unfaithfulness to Him. A wave of amazement completely washed over me in a new way tonight as I visualized Jesus ridiculed, battered, beaten and hung on a cross to die. That the God of all creation would choose to send his only son to die such a brutal and horrible death to save a wretch of a person like me...there are no words....there is NO love greater than that. He loved me and you that much that He would suffer and die for us! WOW! That is way I want to love.......