A teen girl, loved by her parents, graduates from high school and goes off to college. Three months into the college life, while reading the professor’s notes on a flunked test as she walked down dorm stairs, she tripped, fell and broke her leg.
Did her parents stop loving her because of the fall? No.
Did she fall because her parents had stopped loving her? No.
Did her parents’ love become more clear than ever AFTER the fall? Absolutely.
For it’s very likely that the parents poured themselves and their money into helping their daughter as quickly and fully as they could.
Could the parents’ love have prevented the fall? Not directly because they weren’t physically there to catch her.
But if she had recalled their teaching to always watch her steps when on stairs, she wouldn’t be in the mess that she was.
You see, the parents’ love never changed before or after the fall. It was just shown in priceless, nurturing ways once the fall had occurred.
Yes, the parents wished the teen would never have fallen and they had taught her over and over about how to avoid it.
But people — ourselves included — are flawed and forgetful and we eventually pay the price for it.
Thankfully, there are those willing to pay a price themselves in order to help us.
Why? Because they love us. And always will.
Why this illustration today? In Romans 8:35-37 we read the following:
“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, ‘For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.’) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”
Satan wants us to think that God has stopped loving us if we find ourselves in one of the difficult situations listed above. But that is a lie, just like it’s a lie to think the teen fell down the stairs because her parents stopped loving her.
“Oh, if they loved her, they would have kept her from falling,” is one of the lies. She is an adult free to make her own choices and that includes the choice to neglect a safety principle her parents had repeatedly taught her.
Faith doesn’t do its heavy lifting when things are going well, but instead when things aren’t going well.
When did the teen in the story above most clearly see and appreciate her parents’ love? After she had fallen, of course, and needed their help.
When do we most clearly see and appreciate our Father’s love? After we’ve fallen and need His help.
Listen, God’s love for us never changes even though our circumstances can change in a moment.
Before a fall, after a fall — whether caused by us or another — God loves us and helps us to find a path to victory in this life and in eternity.
And that’s the greatest kind of love.
As always, I love you
Martin
