Unbounded Love

I don’t think I will ever forget the first time I held my niece,
Katherine Jean.
I had taken the 1am train to DC.
I arrived in the delivery room less than an hour after she was born.
And my brother immediately put her in my arms.
Cradling this gift of new and promise-filled life.
Gazing into her alert, but as yet unfocused eyes,
I found myself shaken,
Taken by overwhelming emotion.
By Love.
It was in that moment,
In that overwhelming wave of Love,
That I think I really began to get a glimpse of who God is.
If I, as a mere mortal,
A shadow of the Father in the story of the Prodigal,
Running across the fields of night
To greet my niece for the first time,
If I can feel so much unconditional love
For a child who isn’t even my own,
How much more must God,
In God’s perfection,
Love us.

Parable

The Kingdom of God is like a man who has everything and loses it.
His job.
His home.
His friends.
His partner.
His faith.
Having lost status and livelihood, he turns to his children.
And they – who have nothing themselves – become his everything.
With nothing left to lose, he gives them his love.
Pours himself out for them.
Loves them unconditionally.
Asking nothing but to be loved in return.
And they do.
In this he finds purpose.
In this, he finds true happiness.
In this, he finds the face of God.
Boundless, changeless love.

This is what the kingdom of God looks like:
A man who loses his life and finds it again in love.