Impossible Love

   Yesterday, some of my students were being loud and obnoxious. One of them turned to me and said, "You know you love us, Mrs. Wales."  I laughed and said, "Yes, I actually do." Another girl said, "She has to love us..." and then turned to me and said, "You have to love us, don't you?"

"Actually, no, no I don't."

   But then...hmmm....as a Christ-Follower, yes, yes I do.  Certainly not with my own stock of love resources.  In fact, there are a few students whom I only want to see the backs of as they're exiting the room. I cringe when they walk through the door. The spiritually discerning hairs on the back of my neck rise when they enter.  I long for their departure. Yet Abba loves them, which means that if I love Him, I must love them also. It seems impossible when my stomach roils at their very presence...or at what has taken up residence within them or rides on their shoulder. Seeing past to the little child within them takes supernatural eyes.  The ability to believe who they can be takes enormous faith.

   Beth Moore, in her book Believing God, said "When we lose our faith to love, we lose the energy to love. Then we lose our hope." It struck me this morning that I had lost hope of being able to love some of these children (as you may have lost hope in being able to love some adults in your life).
We don't realize that we have reverted to relying on our own ability to love the unloveable, instead of relying on the God of the Impossible, the Source of all love.

   "If you truly become a person who makes a lifestyle of believing God, you will become bolder in your love for others and what you are willing to believe God for in their lives."  --Beth Moore

   May it be to us as you have said, dear Abba. May your love flow through us like molten lava, even to the hair-raising ones. May your love set them free to be transformed into the image You already see in Your mind's eye. And as an extra-special gift, may we from time to time Be given the privilege of seeing the manifestation of that transformation, as we put our hope in You.