Who Loves Who First?

Ron:

God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten son. I’m Ron your host, and today we bring back to our awareness that our heavenly Father loved us first, and then did something about it.

Sandy:

I have a niece who was adopted from China and she spent the first ten years, ten months of her life in a crib with seven other kids. Actually, she wouldn’t even be allowed to sit up, she was attached to the crib. It took my sister about four years to get her to accept people. It wasn’t a mental thing it was an emotional thing. Where when she went through something she would just close off. She wouldn’t cry, even as a baby she wouldn’t cry she just closed up. And when there were too many people around her she would close up. What happened is every time she went into this kind of thing my sister was told just to put her on her lap and hug her really tightly until she started relating again. And talk to her, that is how she got her out of it and not she a normal person. But it was very, very hard.

Dale:

I think what Sandy was talking about is very important I realize what was happening to her. Would this be your niece Sandy?

Sandy:

Yes, my niece.

Dale:

Because what she was being denied of was communication. And not only was she being denied communication, she was being denied the communication that she needed. You take a little baby like that, they don’t know what they need. Their needs are so simple that they will accept pretty much whatever you give them. If you give them love, they’ll accept it and they will return it. If you feed them they have had that need to be fed but they really don’t understand it. They just know if I cry somebody will come and feed me, or they will change me. That simple needs that they have are brought about by communication. And those simple needs, need to be conveyed with love for that child to learn love; because they don’t know what love is. And love starts out being, oh boy, boy I feel much better not I am not wet. Oh, wow this pain that I have here in my body it disappeared from that wonderful stuff that they gave me. And pretty soon the child begins to formulate in their mind what love is. Love is something that makes me feel good. Love is something I can return, they can smile. Whether it is gas or not believe what you want. The fact that they see you walk up to the crib or you talk to them or something. They do the best they can to return. And they wiggle and do all kind of stuff and their trying to return the love to you. Pretty soon a relationship is formed, and that relationship is very precious to a little child it’s the only one they got. Is mom or dad or the one who comes and feeds them. The one who changes them the one who comes and gives them attention. I love Sandy’s story of the success. The success of just loving and finding ways to love the child.

Sandy:

You know another thing that is really cool is she and my sister, she is twenty-four years old now. And she and my sister have a really, really good relationship. It was established back then. When my sister just held her.

Dale:

What kind of a relationship did they have?

Sandy:

It’s a mother, daughter relationship but it is also a friend relationship.

Dale:

Is it a love relationship?

Sandy:

Oh, yes very much.

Dale:

That’s what I was looking for.

Sandy:

Ok

Dale:

I mean you could be mother and daughter, father and son. You could be friends but there is one step further. Your sister chose to love that little girl. Your sister’s heart so big that she was easily imparted to that little girl. That little baby knew what she wanted. She wanted to be loved. That is the way our walk with God is. That is the way, that’s why God overlooks all the crap that we throw up. You know, isn’t that the truth? Can we count on His love?

There is one thing that we are all very much aware of and a lot of times people don’t want to think about. And that’s who loved who first? And in Sandy’s case, her sister showed that little girl love first. You mentioned Sandy the very unique relationship they have now and how strong it is. Mother, daughter they are I bet you best of friends.

Sandy:

Yes, they are.

Dale:

That’s because your sister took the initiative to love first and believe it or not sports fans that’s what happened to us. God loved us first. I don’t think there is anybody that can say, oh yeah I woke up one morning I was six years old and I said, you know God I really love you; well He loved you along time before you were six years old. He loved us at the foundation of the earth when we were created. How much time has passed until we begin to realize that relationship. And I think that happens when we realize and accept adoption as sons. That is part of what your niece experienced from her mother. A little child doesn’t know she’s adopted or he is adopted. They just know this person loves me. And as we acknowledge that we are starting to return to our Father what He wants. He wants to be loved because He loved us. And that is called worship. That’s how the foundation of our worship is saying God, I receive your love and I give it back to you.

Ron:

Well today we’ve seen that our heavenly Father was our example on how to love. Let’s return His love to Him and follow His example by putting into action our love for one another.