Today I read Ephesians 3 where Paul is talking about the love that Jesus has for us. It has been stated in the past that Heavenly Father and Jesus also, have unconditional love for all of us. It is hard to understand what that means until you are a parent. This is because other kinds of love can be squelched. Just about everyone has been in love romantically with someone in the past that they are not in love with any more for any number of reasons. We may love our siblings or perhaps did love them at one point, but because of circumstances or choices that are made, we no longer do.
But the love a parent has for a child, I'm not sure that can be squelched or fade away. Unconditional love is a love that endures no matter what happens. That is how it gets its name. I really don't think it is something that anyone other than a parent can understand. And perhaps only a parent who has a child who tests those limits can truly understand it at that. But now that I have a daughter, I understand what people say when they say they would do just about anything for their kids. I can understand just how easy it is for a parent to spoil their child and give in and give them everything that they ask for. But we have discussed in the past how that is not love when such things happen.
Love is about doing what is best for the person regardless of their wishes or desires. When we give in to children's demands and take no thought to what it is that they need for their future, we are not thinking of them and what they need. We are instead giving into their desires and giving them what they, in their limited understanding, think they want and need. It is very similar to a child wanting to touch the bright red stove because they like the color red. You know that is a very bad idea, but the child doesn't know that. But if we give in and let the child get what they want, then we are actually doing more damage than good. This is the same for emotional things as well as other physical things. There is a reason that we are the adults and they are the children.
It is the same with Heavenly Father and with us. He knows what in the long term will be beneficial for us and what won't. He has enough love for us that He will deny us if it actually will harm us,or interfere with His plan for us. And we should truly thank Him for that and not get upset when it happens as we are sometimes prone to do. We have a very limited perspective, like a mouse in a maze, and cannot see everything that He sees. So we have to trust that all the things that are happening to us are for our benefit. We need to have a correct understanding of His nature so that we know that He will not do anything unless it is ultimately going to help us somehow. He knows us. He created us and He knows what we need to be able to come back to Him. He has a plan and He will share some of it with you if you only ask. But whether He shares it with you or not, we definitely need to trust Him. Otherwise, what sense does all this make, really? Until tomorrow.
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