Costly Love

I have a friend whose father was a prominent doctor in the town she grew up in. Today her dad has Alzheimer’s and has become like a child. She helps to care for him as she watches him decline right before her eyes.

She has introduced me to one of her friends who took care of her husband for over 10 years as he went from being a head anesthesiologist in town to being diagnosed at a young age with the same disease and finally seeing it take his life.

I remember lying in a hospital bed, realizing that God was asking more of me than I could possibly give. He was asking me to love deeply, to love to the point of my heart breaking, to love beyond my own capacity to love. Love can be costly and never more costly than when it breaks your heart.

My friend loves her father as she grieves the father she lost. Her friend loved her husband as she longed for a husband to walk through the seasons with her, hand in hand. I love my son even as I miss the son he could have been if his chromosomes had all been in place.

We love because we have been loved. ”Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:7-8

He loved us long before we even acknowledged that we needed a Savior. Amazing love, a costly love that sent Jesus to the cross for us.

Jesus said this about love: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.” John 15:12-14

There are times when God calls us to a costly love. Our first urge is often to run, to look for comfort or a way out. Love will often demand loss and heartache. But we can love deeply simply because we have been deeply loved.

What a blessing to be instruments for God’s love to flow through us and into the lives of those around us. Love, for you are beautifully loved.