There is always something to love...

This is from a book which is entitled stories for the heart. His book was given to me a number of years ago while I was a pastor of a local church. It is a recounting of the story that Tony Campolo told that one of his presentations…

"Some years ago, I saw Lorraine Hansberry's play, raisin in the sun, and heard a passage that still wants me. And that play, an African-American family inherits $10,000 from their father's life insurance policy. The mother of the household sees in this legacy the chance to escape the ghetto life of Harlem and move into a little house with flower boxes out in the countryside. The brilliant daughter of this family sees in the money the chance to live out her dream and go to medical school

but the older brother has a plea that is difficult to ignore. He begs for the money so that he and his friend can go into business together. He tells the family that with the money he can make something of himself and make things good for the rest of them. He promises that if he can just have the money, he can give back to the family all the blessings that their hard lives have denied them.

Against her better judgment, the mother gives into the pleas of her son. She has to admit that life's chances have never been good for him that he deserves the chance that this money might give him. As you might suspect, the so-called friend skips town with the money. The desolate son has to return home and break the news to his family that their hopes for the future have been stolen and their dreams for a better life are gone. His sister lashes into him with a barrage of ugly epitaphs. She calls him every despicable thing that she could imagine. Her contempt for her brother has no limits.

When she takes a breath in the midst of her tirade the mother interrupts her and says, I thought I taught you to love him.

Bernatha, the daughter, answers, love him? There's nothing left to love.

And the mother responds: there's always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing. Have you cried for that baby boy today, I don't mean for yourself in the family because we lost all that money. I mean for him: for what he's been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love some by the most: when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain't through learning, because that ain't the time at all. It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in himself cause the world done whip team so. When you starts measure and somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right. Make sure you done taking into account what hills and valleys he done come through before he got to wherever he is.

That is grace! It is love that is given when it is not deserved. It is forgiveness when it is not earned. It is a gift that flows like a refreshing stream to quench the fires of angry condemning words.

How much more loving and forgiving is the father's love for us? And how much more is the grace of God for us?"

There's only one thing to say (actually to type for me) after reading that, AMEN!

What are your thoughts?