A bus full of school children veered across a road, through the barrier and plunged down a hillside heading towards a 200 foot drop off. If the bus went over every child aboard would die. The driver had one chance to yank the wheel and turn the bus toward a large concrete wall that would save everyone on the bus. He pulled hard on the wheel and the bus shot towards the wall. As it did a young boy walked in front of the wall. The driver had to make a decision to stay the course and kill the boy or let go of the wheel and allow the bus to plunge to the bottom of the ravine. He chose the wall. The young child was killed. The driver, although accorded hero status, was devastated. The young boy was the driver’s son.
That is what God has done for each of us. That is how much He loves us.
When I heard that story I was overwhelmed with gratitude but at the same time a sense of unworthiness weighed heavily upon me. As I pondered this I realized that I can never love Him as much as He loves me. I also realized that I had allowed myself to be deceived and had become lukewarm. For most of us it’s probably not too difficult to remember the last time we stumbled. But even for the scarred and battle-hardened amongst us who can’t remember, the enemy still tries to label us unworthy. In our own right we are all unworthy of His love, grace and mercy. In full knowledge of this He still chose to save us. All I need do is accept the fact that I will never be worthy and gratefully receive the opportunity He has given me to love Him and my neighbor, daily. I wonder to what extent we all need to slow down and appreciate just how much He loves us. To what extent do we need to stop running and allow ourselves to be captivated by Christ, instead of judging ourselves and the extent to which we think we deserve His love? His love is not ours to deserve but His to give.
I pray that we would make the choice daily to love Him with all of our heart, mind and strength and then allow Him to empower us to love one another.
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