Love by Michelle Wiebe-Santschi

Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30). The second greatest commandment, He said, is to love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31). God is good and perfect and unconditional in His love. He deserves to be loved by us. But how can we love our neighbor? How can we love people who sin and make mistakes? How can we love people who are very different from us? How can we love people when they may never love us back? How can we love those who hate us and hurt us?
They don't deserve it! Or do they?

Whether or not someone is worthy to be loved is not a question that should even be asked. Everyone is worthy of love and in need of love. And not because of anything other than the fact that they are human. It does not depend on whether or not a person has the right education, the right amount of money, or wears the right cothes. It does not matter where they come from, what they look like, or how they talk. It is also not dependent on whether or not they believe in God or belong to a certain denomination. We do need to care about these things and others like gender, race, age, and personality because they are a part of who people are.but these things do not determine whether we should love people. We don't need to like everybody or agree with everything they believe--but we do need to love them.

We definitely need help with this. We need God's perfect love. We need to see people through His eyes. He has created every single human being. We are His artwork and He takes great delight in what He has made. So should we. By not loving people we are not appreciating what God has made. We are telling the Creator of the Universe that He has made a mistake (and that we could have done better!). For those of us who struggle with loving others, we need to begin by asking God some questions when we look at people. Ask Him why He made them, why He likes them, why He loves them. Ask Him what He enjoys about them. When we listen to His answers, it becomes extremely difficult not only to love them but also to appreciate them and find enjoyment in them like He does. And the really miraculous thing is that when we start to see people the way that God does, we ourselves are changed. The heavy weight of judgment is lifted and we are free.free to love and enjoy God's creation, free to love ourselves and everyone we meet. Life becomes richer, fuller, and a lot more fun.