One Love

Once I picked up a child and took him to our children’s home, gave him a bath, clean clothes, and everything, but after a day the child ran away. He was found again by some body, but again he ran away. Then I said to the sisters, “Please follow that child. One of you stay with him and see where he goes when he runs away.” And the child ran away a third time. There under a tree was his mother. She had put two stones under a small earthenware vessel and was cooking something she had picked up in the dustbins. The sister asked the child, “Why did you run away from home?” He answered, “But this is my home because this is where my mother is.” (Life In The Spirit, by Mother Teresa of Calcutta)

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast, and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. (Isaiah 49:15-16) When God desired to reveal the depths of His love for Israel before He sent His son, He chose the comparison of a mother’s attachment for her children. Mother Teresa of Calcutta witnessed the bond, and was surely able to perceive God’s meaning in His word.

In spite of all that the world had hurled at Israel, it was God’s love for the nation that brought them hope and perseverance to survive banishment and exile from their land. To be told that you are engraved of the palm of God’s hands is to know that your relationship is both very close, and lasting forever.

Every generation esteems different human qualities. The pioneers valued the “work ethic”, as did others. Other “ethics” have have been embraced, and have had some merits and helped shape national identities. Freedom, equality, education , are each considered the path to the best possible life, but St. Paul, having considered and even lived some of them, believed that there is only one thing that makes a lifelong difference. Freedom without love is a sham, and even faith can be nothing but a clanging cymbal. Martyrdom is empty and knowledge is vapid without without love. (1Corinthians 13:1-3)

God sees only our love. God will not ask how many books we have read, how many miracles we have worked, but whether we have done our best for the love of Him. (Mother Teresa of Calcutta)

The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. ( Jesus of Nazareth, John 14:21)

Love in Him,

Prue