“She loved me so well that it was nothing but a privilege to love her back.”
At the Annual Gathering this year I was especially moved by a story told by the guest speaker. He shared how his father had spent ten years caring for his mother after she had become completely debilitated with Alzheimer’s. She could not even turn over in the bed, so each morning and evening her faithful husband would, with great effort, roll her over to her other side.
At the mother’s funeral the speaker asked his dad, “How did you do it all those years? She didn’t even know who you were, or that you were even there.” The father replied with tears welling up in his eyes, “She loved me so well, that it was nothing but a privilege to love her back.”
That statement moved me. I thought of our wonderful Heavenly Father’s love, mercy and provision for me, and the loving husband’s statement became my own. God has loved me so well that I consider it a great honor and privilege to serve Him. There is no way I could ever repay Him for all He has done for me.
I am reminded of that beautiful old song, the Love of God. The last verse says:
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the sky of
parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll
contain the whole
though stretched from sky to sky!
Oh love of God, how rich and pure,
how measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
the saint’s and angel’s song.
It is when we begin to realize just how much He cares, that we cannot respond quickly enough to give Him our all. I strongly suspect that a lack of commitment to Him reveals a lack of understanding of the great price He paid to bring us salvation and true life.
Thank you, Lord, for Your patience with us when we take Your love for granted. Teach us to know Your love more deeply – then our only possible response will be to love you better. May it be so! - Sylvia