Unconditional Love

I started reading a parenting book today, and the first point the authors make is that love for our children must be unconditional.  That is, we should love them for who they are and not for what they do. 

I have watched my children receive this kind of love from their grandparents.  I watch these adults adore and pet my precious daughter, and let’s face it, a toddler isn’t going to win you over with her accomplishments.  But they LOVE her.  And it’s the kind of love that delights to be in the presence of the loved one.  Sure, they appreciate what she does.  When she reaches a milestone (say, putting her own toothpaste on her toothbrush), they cheer for her.  But they love her accomplishments because they love her.  When she walks into the room, they smile.  She is the most beautiful, most intelligent, most talented, most everything person BECAUSE she is loved. 

I want to love others that way.  True love does not have prerequisites.  Love opens us to hurt.  Yet when we are hurt by those we love, we have a source of healing: the Christ who loved us while we were yet sinners, the Christ who has been hurt by every human he ever loved.  Most two year olds are easy to love, but there are some people . . . . Still, we are commanded to love one another. 

When I see my little girl climb confidently into her grandmother’s lap—knowing she is loved, expecting to find love, basking in that love—then I want to be that source of love for others who are seeking a safe place.  

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”