Love That Never Gives Up
“Love is patient,.. love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.”
Who’s glad that God never gave up on them? I sure am.
God puts up with a whole bunch of mess from us and still keeps on loving us.
In Luke 15 we read a parable that Jesus told which is commonly known as ‘The Parable of The Prodigal Son’. It could just as well be called ‘The Parable of the Loving Father’, because of the outstanding quality of love portrayed by the father in that he never gave up on either of his sons.
When the youngest son was far away, the father ran to him. He had not given up on his son, and he was not going to let the son’s failings come in-between his love for him. Likewise, the father never gave up on his oldest son. He went looking for him as well.
God’s love for us is far greater than our weakness; it endures over time and in spite of us. He never gives up on us!
Tim Keller tells a true story of enduring love; love that prevails over time and adverse circumstances. It concerns a young mother immigrating to the US from eastern Europe in the early 1900’s. Her husband had left years earlier hoping to make a new life for his family. He eventually found a job on a mid-western town. When he had saved enough to bring her and their child across the Atlantic, he posted the tickets to them, with the name of the settlement that she had to make her way to.
By the time she had received the tickets in the mail many more weeks had passed. She then had to make arrangements, sell what little possessions she had, gather what she could carry and bid farewell to her family and friends. Finally, she was able to begin her long journey with their child, halfway across the world. The only information she had was her husband’s name and the strange sounding name of a town somewhere in the United States of America.
After years of waiting and months journeying from the far side of Europe in a steamship across the Atlantic Ocean, through Ellis Island, New York, and finally, on cross-country rail, the train hissed and shuddered as it pulled into her final destination. She looked out the carriage window and there, waiting patiently, seated on a horse-drawn carriage, was her husband. Unbeknown to her, every day for months he had dressed and bridled their wagon and driven it to the station to wait for his wife and child, knowing surely that one day the train would steam to a stop carrying his lifetime sweetheart and only child.
Similarly, God’s love for us endures all time and all circumstance. He loves us with a passion that never gives up!
Written by Grant Peterson
