This month, my team is living with one of my favorite people I have met on the World Race and probably in my entire life.
Her name is Valerija.
She is a 76 year old Latvian who swims in the Baltic Sea every single morning (even when it’s snowing), plays the accordion, and speaks absolutely no English.
Needless to say, she is not your average “Granny”, as our team lovingly refers to her.
The moment we walked into her apartment for the first time, we knew we were home.
We walked in the door and were immediately greeted with huge hugs, smiles, squeals, and a little bit of jumping around.
We walked in, and we knew we were loved.
Our first few days in Latvia, Granny greeting us with such love really stood out to me and impacted in ways I never imagined.
We can’t do anything to earn her love. We can’t tell her a funny joke, we can’t compliment how great her apartment is or how tasty her cooking is. We didn’t do anything to make her proud or make her want to be around us.
We simply walked in the doors, and we were loved.
I felt God saying to me how this is just like His love.
I haven’t been sweet enough, pretty enough, funny enough, smart enough, or good enough to earn His love.
And I never will be.
I haven’t done enough good things or told enough people about who He is or walked free from all the sin I’ve struggled with in my past.
And I never will. And even my “righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6)
I simply am loved because He chose to love me.
I did nothing to earn it.
So every time I walk into Granny’s apartment and I’m greeted with some Latvian words I will never understand and a sweet hug, I am reminded of the ridiculous love of our God.
And then I am reminded of my calling to love in the exact same way.
I so often love conditionally.
I love someone because they make me laugh or we “click” or we have the same interests.
But what if those things change? What if that person no longer has the same interests as I do or finds a friend that they laugh more with?
Does my love fade away?
I hate to admit it, but usually it does.
What if that was how Jesus loved me?
“Well Ally, you didn’t serve as well as Shelley did today. I choose her over you. Sorry.”
WHAT? That would be ridiculous. We know and experience the abundant and incredible grace and love of Jesus daily.
And because we know that love and grace, we are called to do the same.
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” 1 John 4: 9-12
Granny, my team and some of team Ascend the Hill when we decided to experience her morning ritual of swimming in the Baltic in ridiculously cold weather.
