Finding Unconditional Love

Beyond Valentine's Day...

She sat in the wheelchair, wrapped in blankets against the cool winter weather. Gnarled hands are resting on her lap, weathered and worn from years of hard work. Her face was peaceful and relaxed despite the wrinkles as she listened to the woman standing before her telling a story. Her large brown eyes shone with the joy of the message she was hearing. A slight smile played across her lips as she delighted in the guitar music and singing. Her body was old, worn, and broken, but she could still tap her slippered toe in time to hear the familiar song.

She was once abandoned, left in a dilapidated shack on the city's hillside. She was lying paralyzed in a lumpy, dirty bed with flies buzzing across her face as she tried to sleep. Unable to mobilize herself, care for her urgent needs, or even feed herself, she was hopeless, deserted and waiting to die.

And then love found her.
Rescued her from her desolation.
Gave her a new life and a new hope.

The visiting minister saw her plight and was moved with compassion. Unable to turn away, he knew he could not leave her in that shack. He knew he could not deny the needs of this lady whose life was not yet done.

With tears in his eyes and a lump in his throat, he lifted her into his strong arms and carried her out of the hovel, down the hillside, and into his home. His family washed her, fed her, cared for her, protected her, and loved her. She became family.

She was no longer lost, no longer abandoned and no longer left alone to die. She was accepted. She knew hope. She knew love.

“But God still loved us with such great love. He is so rich in compassion and mercy. Even when we were dead and doomed in our many sins, he united us into the very life of Christ and saved us by his wonderful grace!” (Ephesians 2:4-5 TPT)

I’ve been there. Maybe you have, too.
Spiritually lost, abandoned, broken, hopeless, and waiting to die.

You may feel deserted, and life hasn’t turned out as you hoped. You may have been rejected, forsaken, or discarded.

God’s love is endless, and his mercies are new every morning. He loves you and cares for you. You can feel safe, protected, and accepted in his arms.

Allow God to lift you into his strong arms and carry you into safety and His family. Under his protection, you can experience love, acceptance, joy, and hope again—God's limitless, unconditional love.

Kathleen Knapp is an author and blogger.
You can find more about her and her writing on her website,
www.KathleenKnappWriter.com, and view her published Devotion books on Amazon.