God's Love For One & All

Degeneration of my spine, and the extreme pain it causes, could have been debilitating if my Doctor hadn't arranged for me to attend an appointment at the Pain Clinic. Asked, on my first visit, when the pain was at it's worst, I replied that it was when lying down, and when sitting for a long time in church.

Throughout the appointments I had following that, he taught me to concentrate on breathing, slowly and intensely, imagining each breath going deep within me.

'When you focus on your pain, your body clenches up and that increases it,' he told me. 'You need to relax, and think outside of that.'

Later, having learned of my faith, he added to that.

'Think of each breath as the breath of Jesus going into you,' he said.

It made me smile a little.

'Do you have faith?' I asked.

'Yes. But only in other things,' was his response, his face portraying a slight amusement.

I took that to mean a 'No!'

At the end of my last appointment, I told him, 'God loves you, too, you know.'

He thanked me profusely, though, with the look of amusement on his face, I have no idea whether he truly believed what I'd said. Nor whether he was pleased, or not.

GOD'S LOVE IS GREAT . . .

But it's true, isn't it! God's love for us all made Him send His precious Son, Jesus, to die a hideously painful and humiliating death on a cross, in order that we might ALL be redeemed of our sinfulness. His love for us is beyond imagination.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean that we are One with Him. If we refuse to believe in Him, to trust in Him and to follow Him, then the lives we live may be self-defined and even selfish, In which case, we cannot know the peace of Heaven, nor experience, knowingly, the love of the Father. If – when – that is so, God, Himself, must feel the anguish of any parent whose child turns away, is disobedient, self-serving, cruel, and set on a path of ultimate destruction.

. . . DESPITE THE PAIN OF PARENTHOOD

With a daughter whose drug-addiction eventually led to her death, I know that feeling all too well. The distress and torment her father and I went through was insufferable. However, she was a believer, she told me, and was desperate to give up her dependency, to turn her life around. Succeeding for a short time, she fed and nursed her new-born, then died in bed at night. Told, insistently by the Coroner, that this was her own doing, I persistently refuted that, telling him that various medical tests had proved the lack of drugs within her. He refused to change his opinion, or his notification on her death certificate.

Nevertheless, the fact that God loved her was evident. Her neighbours – so we were told by the police, following the Inquest – were under surveillance.

“We believe they were determined to have her supply for them,” the officers told us. “And though we were there, but didn't see it, we're pretty sure that they could have dropped drugs into her drink at a Barbecue in the park. That could have resulted in her vomiting and asphyxiating in bed at night.”

It made sense, though in view of all we'd been through, as parents, we declined their request that we take out a private investigation. My hope now, is that she will know the peace and love of God.

So let us all turn to the Lord and shine His light forth into these dark times of wars, poverty and starvation, environmental pollution, stabbings and shootings. He is our Heavenly Father. He created each and everyone of us, and the beautiful planet on which we live. He loves us. All of us! But if we are ever to know Him as such, and experience His unending love, we need to be true to Him; to be the human beings He created us to be; the children we should be to Him, and thus show His love and care to one and all. Just think what a peaceful world we would live in.

So do it now. Turn to Him. You never know when your time on earth will come to an end, so don't leave it too late.