I Love You Forever......

Days 153 and 154 reading asignment:
2 Samuel 19:11-21:22
John 21:1-Acts 1:26
Psalm 120:1-121:8
Proverbs16:16-18

My grandson Crew is just thirteen months old but already he knows how to work me.  He is a master at doling out his love and then withholding it for just the right effects.  He will ignore me just until I'm bordering on really taking his rejection personally and then with an enormous smile and flickering eyes he stretches his arms wide and will run the full length of the room toward me and wrap himself completely around me.  This one action is worth the previous rejections.  Our love is secure and reinstated once again.

When Crew's mommy was little, we would play a game where she would use her hand to smash her nose upwards and catch the side of her mouth with her pinky finger causing it to droop abnormally downward and do anything else she could to distort herself and then would ask me "mommy if I looked like this would you still love me?"  This game and its many variations could go on for a very long time, much like the numerous children's books on the topic of unconditional love.  Like "Mama Do You Love Me?", "I Love You Stinky Face", and one of my favorites "I Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch.  I was standing in Clas E Professor in the mall many years ago reading this book about a mother reinforcing to her child her unconditional love for him.  The story begins when the little boy is just a baby and follows him through boyhood  with a line that repeats: "I love you forever, I like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be."  At the end of the story the boy has grown into a man and the mama has grown into a little old lady.  The man cradles the old lady in his arms and he is now saying to her : "I love you forever, I like you for always as long as I'm living my mommy you'll be."  At this point in the story, standing there in that store, I cried so hard the lady who worked there came over to offer me a kleenex.  It was incredibly embarrassing.

It is easy for me, as a mother, to get the unconditional concept.  I try to keep this perspective when relating myself to God.  To get in relationship with Him as my Father it is a comfort to know this is His love for me.  At the end of John when the resurrected Jesus appears again to the disciples by the Sea of Galilee, it made me wonder how Peter was feeling.  This was the third time Jesus had appeared to them after his death.  Peter had denied Christ three times before the crucifixion.  Now Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him.  The application says: The first time Jesus said, "Do you love (Greek agape: volitional, self-sacrificial love) me more than these?"  The second time, Jesus focused on Peter alone and still used the word translated into Greek,  agape.  The third time Jesus used the word translated into Greek, phileo (signifying affection, affinity, or brotherly love) and asked, in effect, "Are you even my friend?"  When Peter answered yes, Jesus told him to feed His sheep.  It is one thing to say you love Jesus, but the real test is willingness to serve Him.  Peter had repented and here was Jesus asking him to  commit his life.  Peter's life changed when he finally realized who Jesus was.  He finally understood the significance of Jesus' words about his death and resurrection.  

There is another really great children's book by Sam McBratney called, "Guess How Much I Love You?"  It is about a bedtime conversation between a Father (Big Nutbrown Hare) and his son (Little Nutbrown Hare).  This story is a precious example of God's love for His children. As Big Nutbrown Hare prepares Little Nutbrown Hare for bed, "Little' initiates a contest of one-upmanship.  Father and son each come up with similes to express their love for the other.  Little Nutbrown Hare falls asleep thinking he has won with, "I love you as far as the moon!"  But Big Nutbrown Hare gently cradles him and lays him in his bed, whispering, "I love you as far as the moon....and back!"

Jesus doesn't settle for easy answers.  He has a way of getting to the heart of the matter.  Peter had to face his true feelings and motives when Jesus confronted him.  This made me wonder how I would respond if Jesus asked me, "Do you love me?  Do you really love me?  Are you even my friend?