Because I Love You

My sister, who is going through chemo therapy had started loosing her hair.  She didn't have flowing hair down into her back but loosing what she did have was still emotional. It was another sign of the chemo's effects on the body and the mind if you let it.  I was sweeping up falling hair that needed no pull to just fall freely from her scalp to the floor.  It was like watching a tree go through the "fall" process leaf by leaf until all was gone.  I eventually shaved her head.  Cleaned the scalp and rid it of the remaining strands that bravely stayed in place for the moment.  My younger sister and I had decided independently of each other that we would not allow her to do this alone.  So it is that on that night we both cut off the hair we had to the scalp.  My older sister who saw us later cried out "Why did you guys do this!"  The answer was simple, "Because I love you."


I was reading about Mother Teresa, who from a little girl knew that her life belonged to God.  She gave him her heart and committed herself to him as a nun.  She wanted to be his hands and feet beyond the walls of the building she taught in Calcutta.  After some years she was given the go ahead from her order to begin a ministry that helped the people on the street.  She was called she says to help the diseased, the leprous outcasts, the lonely, the dying.  On one such outing, she saw a man lying on the street, whose body was being eaten by worms.  The stench from his wounds was strong and yet she went to him and extended her help.  He asked with incredulity, "why are you doing this?" and she said "because I love you."


When I read those words I immediately felt God's presence.  It was like his very breath was upon my neck as He whispered the same to me, "Because I love you."  Everything that He has done has been to this end...He loves me.  He loves you.  I tear up even now as I write this again. Somehow these four words fill me up and satisfy that longing inside of me to be loved.  God loves me - satisfyingly, completely, and unconditionally. He is the initiator of love, in fact God is LOVE.  It was not Valentine or any other, but God Himself who is the definition and fulfillment of love.
Yes.  No doubt these acts of human compassion are great, and yet I tell you that greater has been done for us. 

John 3:16New International Version (NIV)
¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Here is the heart of all of these words I have written, God loves you.  I pray that you will hear His voice in your ear, as He whispers these words to you, "Because I love you...".  No matter what you may be facing don't ever forget that in the midst of it all is a God whose love for you remains always strong and persistent.  Beloved, allow yourself to be embraced today because he loves you.