Unchanging Love

"Because He delights in unchanging love..." (Micah 7:18)

      Five years ago, I was in severe pain and getting mad at my husband who was eating when I could not eat because I was in labor with our first born. Evelyn Rose McMasters was born! I remember towards the end of the delivery, I almost gave up. The pain was awful, I was tired, and my husband did this to me and he was standing there with no pain.... but the nurses and doctor told me to reach down and feel her head. Her head was right there. Just a few more pushes and that baby would be crying! :) I pushed two more times and she was here! They laid her on my chest and I was in awe! I knew what love was before I had this baby in my arms. I love love my husband, my family, my friends but this was a love unlike anything I can explain in words. This love would never go away, could never change... it was an unchanging love. 

      April 9, 2010, I got a lesson in love from God. As I sat there nursing Evelyn and just admiring all the little things about her. She had a birthmark on her forehead and she was perfect! While holding her and just taking all of this in, I prayed. I was so thankful for this little girl. I prayed that she would be healthy and happy everyday! I prayed that she would love and serve God without stopping. I prayed like a maniac that I would be able to be a good enough mom for her! And in His timing God spoke to me. "This is how I feel about you! This is how I feel about all of you. I Love you." If you asked me before this day, I would have told you that God loves people. He sent His Son to die for us because He wants and loves us! But after becoming a mom, the love of the Lord is more than just the word love we use in today's society. Today's word of love seems empty.

     For instance, I hear "I love this church" or "I love you" from brothers and sisters in Christ that are supposed to be the example to the world of His love but yet, they walk out and leave the church when things are not going the way they want it to. They step out and walk away. Not because of theological issues but because they won't sit down and work out issues in a Biblical manner. I am glad that when God said He loved me, He doesn't leave me. In fact, the God I serve, hated my actions (my sin) and yet still took on the pain for me. He still served me even when I didn't understand I needed Him to. He never left me mourning like others who have said empty "I love yous" because I was never to far from His unchanging love. It would have been much easier for the Lord to wipe His hands of me and and never have them pierced. He could have said, "Nope, you chose sin" but God because of His unchanging love for me paved a way for my salvation. And He did it for you, too! 

"Who is a God like You, who pardon's iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love" (Micah 7:18). 

     The day I became a mom. I understood why God would never give up on me. A parent's love is amazing. It is unconditional, unchanging, and one of the most painful things I've experienced. There are, unfortunately, parents in this world who lack this love but that is because of sin in their own life. But when I look at my children it never fades. My son's birthday is in a week. He lived for four days and not a day goes by that my heart doesn't think about him. I will always love him. He didn't even have to do anything to receive my love. It is a painful love because we want them to make good choices and when they are making bad ones it hurts. And God hurts when we make those wrong choices. When we choose the world over Him... it hurts Him! When we choose sin over obedience... it hurts Him! When we choose death over life... it hurts Him! When He can't talk to you because you are choosing other things that block Him from you... it hurts Him. But I can tell you this, the moment you realize you need Him and will take His aid... HE IS THERE! Now, my children are going to make bad choices and I am not going to be happy with the bad choices. But when they want to correct it, Momma is going to be thrilled and do everything I can to help them learn and grow from mistakes. And God does the same to us. I will always want Evelyn and Kennedy to choose to live Biblical lives but they will fall. They are human, after all. Our job as parents is to be an example, to correct, and to love them through it all because we model His unchanging love for them. 

    So remember, the Lord's love is an unchanging one for all people. If you call yourself a Christ follower, you too are supposed to love with an unchanging love. Because unchanging love has the power to save.