She took me off guard, looking at me with solemn eyes, tears brimming. Her voice choked as she asked the question.
Why do you care?
Her eyes zeroed in on my face and the pressure mounted. She wanted more than the standard Sunday school answer we'd looked at weeks before in 1 John 4:19--We love because He first loved us.
Her question disturbed me. We all want to know what makes us lovable, unique, special. I confess I've asked my husband the same thing too many times (to his utter frustration). He tries, listing qualities he likes in me, things I've heard a million times, but ultimately he knows it doesn't matter what he says. I'll find it unsatisfying or trivial.
"I don't know why, I just do," he finally says, "I can't explain it."
And when she asks me the question, I feel the same way. I don't know why, I just do.
"Why does anyone care about anybody?" I say.
I know it's not what she wants to hear, but as I think about the people I love, her included, words seem inadequate to describe my attachment. Like me, if I start listing her admirable qualities, she'll find a way to dismiss them as unimportant or ordinary. There is no right answer.
Is it because when we ask that question--Why do you care?--we're really looking for a reason for our existence? Are we really asking, "Why am I here?" How is mere man supposed to come up with that? How can any human know why God created another?
Why do you care?
I wonder the same thing of God. With billions of people on the face of the planet, why would He care about me? How can He be intimately involved with individuals? Is this the real issue? How can the God of the universe care about me? How could He possibly love us all perfectly? How would He answer the question?
I AM. I love you.
No fancy explanations, only truth. If my faith is genuine, if I trust Him as I say I do, I will take it at that and believe it. Because what good does it do me to doubt it? I lose my peace and any purpose for my life. When I refuse to accept it, I call Him a liar. Do I really want to do that?
Why do you care?
I care because He equipped me to do so. For whatever reason, He has laid you on my heart and made you precious to me. I care because He does, because He says it.
I AM. I love you. Believe it.
Why do you care?
Photo Credit: giacomo.nodari
1 comment:
Great post and much needed in an age when even the Church doesn't always understand that if we are in Christ, it is His attributes we must live out and express in the lives of others. We love because p God is love. So many people are experiencing so much loss from the economy, illness, family struggles, you name it. And many of them do question how a loving God could allow these things to happen; all the more reason to let his light and love live in us, and all the more reason to so read the Gispel to a hurting and dying world loving as our Lord did.
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