Unconditional Love
Dear Friends,
As many of you know, I will be taking a Sabbatical this spring and summer, beginning on May 1. Many of you have asked me what I will be doing, and in response I say, “How much time do you have?” The short answer is “a bit of everything.” A bit of family time, a bit of travel, a bit of study (and maybe a lot of study), and a bit of simply resting and doing nothing. Sabbatical is after all, based on the word “Sabbath” which lies at the heart of God’s command to rest – whether on the seventh day, or in the seventh year.
For me, resting and family time are one and the same. My three sons are by far the greatest gift that I have been given, and they have a way of bringing me back in touch with what means most and what gives the most life. To rest in it, relish it. To truly experience the unconditional love that I could never have fully understood without them.
I was almost 30 years old when I became a mother. That first moment of holding my tiny, brand-new son in my arms created a fundamental shift in the core of my being. No area of my life was left untouched, unaffected. How could I love a person I’d never met so deeply, so instantly?
What I have always wanted all three of my sons to know is that I love them with a love that I can’t really even fathom myself. It’s based not on their performance or perfection, but something far more solid: it is based solely on their existence. My hope as they continue to grow and mature and even become parents themselves is that they feel that love from me, that they trust it to be steady and sure, and that they know that nothing - and I mean nothing - can change that.
Becoming a parent changed my daily life and routine to be sure, but it was more than that. That singular moment also launched a “God” shift for me, because it brought a new kind of clarity. It made the words of this Sunday’s reading from the First Letter of John so much more understandable and meaningful to me: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are.”
The idea that God loves us sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Many of us grew up being told about God’s love; maybe we even sang songs about it. However, it is something totally different to trust and internalize those words, to allow them to shape our way of seeing ourselves, our neighbor, and our enemy.
I know that as my sons grow into mature adults there will be all sorts of moments that challenge their sense of worth and belonging. That is, unfortunately, inevitable. My hope for them is that they will remember, through it all, the love I have for them and, in doing so, remember that they always have somewhere to belong and be loved without condition and without end.
And here’s the thing. God longs for each one of us to know the very same thing.
In Christ,
Amelie+
