Sin and love

I have loved you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).

A middle-aged businessman hurried to the hospital. He had received word that his elderly mother had been rushed there by ambulance, and she was not expected to survive the night. As the man strode down the corridor to the Intensive Care Unit, his steps began to falter. He hadn’t spoken with his mother for years—what would he say to her if she was conscious? The man paused, then shook his head and entered the room where his mother lay in bed, connected to a spider web of wires and tubes. If only hours of life remained to her, he had to be at her side.

As the businessman draped his coat over a chair, the dying woman opened her eyes and softly spoke his name. Eyes downcast, her son turned and took her outstretched hand in his own. The room was silent, save for the sounds of medical equipment vainly trying to forestall the inevitable. Finally the old woman said, "I’m so glad you came."

The man finally looked his mother in the eyes and nervously cleared his throat. "I wasn’t sure if you wanted to see me, but after I heard what had happened to you, I had to come." The woman’s eyes widened in surprise. "Why would you think that I wouldn’t want to see you?" she asked. Her son replied, "You were always so disapproving of me. The friends I spent time with, the way I earned and spent my money, my bad habits—it seemed as if I could never be good enough to suit you. Then, when I filed for divorce, I figured there was nothing I could say to you. I know I’ve been nothing but a disappointment."

The mother’s hand tightened its grip on her son’s. "Is that why you’ve stayed away all these years? I love you, son! I’ve always loved you! Yes, I did disapprove of many things you did. You were hurting yourself and the people in your life. You were hurting me. But I never stopped loving you. So I was patient—I hoped that if I waited long enough, you would get tired of the hurt and come back to me for love." The man’s eyes filled with tears—tears for the years he had foolishly wasted. And his mother hugged him with a strength surprising for a woman of her age.

The love of God is like this. God disapproves of your sins, but He still loves you. He is waiting for you to get tired of the hurts caused by sin and come back to Him for love. It may not feel like it right this moment, but God has always loved you, and His arms are waiting to embrace you with surprising warmth and strength.