If I’ve only learned one thing on this trip, it’s that it’s all for love. If Life is about anything, it is about love. Jesus came to this earth for the sake of love. Humanity itself was created for love. If I cannot grasp this one thing, I lose sight of it all. These girls have taught me to love in a way I did not know myself capable of. It is so much simpler than I ever realized. It doesn’t matter if we speak different languages, if we have the same interests, if we grew up with similar experiences. We recognize the humanity in one another as a mirror of our Creator, and love is possible. If we are created in the likeness of Love himself, then that piece of God in me recognizes that piece of God in another. This is how we love one another.
It seems every moment I spend in devotions, I keep getting the same message: love one another. After the third time I thought “okay, yes, love one another. I’ve known this my whole life. I think I’ve gotten it by now.” The Father very gently showed me that I, in fact, did not get it. When I read these verses, and heard these teachings, I think I took “love one another” as “be kind to another, despite the fact that you probably don’t want to be”. I took it as a response to my reluctance to connect with the people I didn’t naturally “click” with. It’s easy to love the people you identify with, the ones you share common interests with. But is that really all love is? Appreciation of similarity? It is that simple, but most definitely not that lacking in depth. I think I took my ability to love the ones I’m close to, as me fulfilling the call to love. But could I look into the eyes of a stranger and say that I loved them? This seems absurd, but Jesus walked the earth doing this very thing. I am called to be Christ in this current age. How often though, do I live as if I’m unaware of this?
We’ve been here at Sending Hope for a month now and spending time with these girls has brought more joy than I thought possible. My favorite part of every day is getting to talk to the teenage girls after worship every night. They talk about their favorite k-pop stars, try to teach me dances, and have me say things in Thai only to make them laugh. In the middle of these moments with them I could feel God whisper “it’s this simple”. Love is this simple. Love isn’t always shown through the big gestures or the thousands of dollars. A lot of the time it looks like allowing someone to be fully human. It’s looking at someone knowing what they were created for, and giving them what they are worthy of: Love.
