how He loves.

This last week I was traveling around the country in a jumbo bus with several other college students singing in our York College Concert Choir. We set out to encourage both small and large churches of Christ in the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri with our voices in the pieces we've been preparing with our director, Dr. Clark Roush, for the past months and as we traveled, each evening we were placed with a host family to keep and feed us in pairs of two or more.

One of night in little Weatherford, Oklahoma after a packed hour and a half of singing, my good friend Alice and I were introduced to a rosy cheeked woman with a wide smile who gave a warm hug of greeting to us both. She immediately grabbed our oversized bags from our arms and led us to her husband, who willingly took them off her hands. The couple told us they were going to take us home, make of list of the things that we would want to eat, and then they would head to the grocery store to give us exactly what we wanted.

My first thought with this woman was, I bet she's the sweetest grandmother and when I asked if they had children, she responded with..."No, God never blessed us with children."

We arrived at their humble sized home and, as the man opened the door and led us in, Alice and I were dazzled by the dimly lit, candle and twinkly-lighted home perfectly dressed in the most beautiful Christmas decorations, three fire places, and walls filled with art and antiques that had to have been worth more then the house itself. It was the most beautifully decorated home I'd ever seen, delightfully homey, the kind of Southwestern decor with wooden ceilings and floors with turquoises and reds that surprisingly led you to get cozy despite the immaculate and elegant display. 

Our bedroom for the night was overwhelmingly filled fluffy pillows, a large bathroom, fittingly prepared for these two strangers this man and woman have been preparing to have in their home.

They forced us to sit, serving us with snacks and warm hot chocolate generously doused with marshmallows, telling us about their lives as both artists and teachers which we found to simply be lives of dedicated service to God and their community that they had been a part of since birth. 

We went to bed full and grateful, and woke up at 6 AM in the morning, greeted with a fully set table decorated with their finest silverware, plates, and glasses- one with coffee, orange juice, and water and a bountiful breakfast that had to have been assembled long before we rose. While we were eating I realized the woman was baking a fresh batch of brownies to place in a sack lunch that had enough contents to fill a grocery sized paper bag for us both.

As we were walking out of the house, the woman stopped us and read a poem with the words "have joy, have strength, and have peace" and blessed us with a prayer, taking hold our our hands as if we were old friends, and then we were on our way to the next stop. I felt as if we had encountered two angels.

Really... what human in their right mind would take these singing hooligans in their home?

There wasn't a chance to offer much of an introduction, explaining who we were and the woman we wanted to become. There was no gift we could give showing our gratitude, even as simple as cleaning the dishes.

There was no rhyme or reason to this evening other then love. These people made the decision to take us in and give us words of encouragement and a place to sleep and all too much food... and they didn't have  to do it. They didn't even know me.

I've always appreciated fairness and I consider myself a giving person. I cannot accept a compliment without responding with another and if I'm given a gift, I want to give back a bigger and better one.

This feeling of receiving undeserved affection is not natural, it doesn't feel comfortable, and it's certainly not what our justice driven society is based upon.

This is the same sort of love that's been given so undeservedly through the offering of the only perfect human to ever come to this Earth- a human who was also God and despite my innate humanness that does wrong, I do not have to live in chains.

Instead, I'm shown grace. 

I'm given a second chance... a third... a fourth...

and I live in such a way where I find myself too tired or frustrated to give of my self. 

I think I should decide who is worthy of my time and affection.

I struggle to forgive.

I am bitter.

I am selfish.

I think I'm better then that person.

Shouldn't I be yearning to give back to the God who's given me the one gift I could never repay?

I think the greatest indication of our character exists in our desire to treat those with love expecting nothing- no promise of a benefit or a thank you or a faithful friendship... not even to be treated with common decency in return. 

This is exactly how I was felt one evening in Weatherford, Oklahoma. 

The act of treating others in the way they do not deserve is living as Jesus lived.

That's what the whole christian thing is all about, right? 

"The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." John 1:9-12