The Cost of Love

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It's easy to sluff off some cavalier response when asked about the costs of love. Obviously some will argue that there is no cost and that it was just some fair trade. Humbug!!! Have a Starbucks and really think about it. The cost of real love is VERY HIGH. In fact, it may be incalculatable from the onset.

Love bears a cost so innumerable that it reaches beyond the vastness of space and time. The love of a mother is beyond measure. The love of a Christ leaves us speachless and hiding. The love of a father will face lions even of certain defeat. The love of a man and woman will defy nations. Is it not our hearts, merely the size of a large fist, that holds the greatest of all treasures—a palace with more rooms than we can count; a universe of endless next times and forgivenesses, and hope beyond all reason, for the mind's desired outcome?

Yes, the decision to love will cost you plenty; maybe everything. But so is the payback; you're playing for ALL the marbles! Any dark day doesn't guarantee one tomorrow. We all want to believe and hope for the best. Often it is easy to just give up! Real love never does. When our minds finally close the doors hearts; darkness most thick embraces us as the tendrills of despair pull us below the surface. The Son disappears to us and our circumstances loom tall and beyond our strengths as we focus on them instead. Again, love is willing to bear all the wrongs, harshnesses, illnesses, duties, hassels, responsibilities, ungratefulnesses, oversights and offenses. Sometimes I think I want a love like that; but my humanity reminds me that I don't. Logic pleads for limits. Self begs for dignity. He asks that we suspend all and cast any worries upon Him. Hmmm....This Thanksgiving, I will give more thanks for the great costs, even beyond life, that have been paid in the name of love.

The cost of love....
 A little boy came into the kitchen one evening while his mom was fixing supper. He handed her a piece of paper he'd been writing on. After wiping her hands on her apron, she read it, and this is what it said:
For mowing the grass, a pair of Nike shoes,
For making my own bed this week, $10.00
For going to the store, $5.00
For playing with Baby Brother while you went shopping, Rs 25.00 - you know that baby sitting fees have gone up...
For taking out the trash, Rs 15.00 - well mum it does involve germs!
For getting a good report card that new cell phone I saw advertised on TV
For raking the lawn $10.00

Well , she looked at him standing there expectantly , and a thousand memories flashed through her mind. So she picked up the paper, and turning it over, This is what she wrote:
For carrying & nurturing you for 9 months, No charge!
For the nights I sat up with u. Doctored you, prayed for you, No charge!
For the time & the tears and the cost through the years, No charge!
For the nights filled with dread and the worries ahead, No charge!
For advice and the knowledge & the cost of your college fees, No charge!
For the toys, food and clothes & for wiping your snotty nose , No charge!
You see when you add it all up , the cost of my love is NO CHARGE!!!
With tears in his eyes the little boy hugged his mom and said "PAID IN FULL"

Remember to say thank you to your parents - I promise it won't cost you a cent!!!!!

Oh how great is the love of a shepard — how long is His reach, beyond the surface of the muck; even to its bottom. Ignoring our faults continuously without even our slightest of regards. His love is much greater than mine. It's a good thing He is Him and I am me. Oh that He would leave the 99 and come for the one; so not logical --- none of it is and yet its power is derived from just that. Is there a point at which easy is hard? The "Way" is touted as easy; but it isn't; nor is it popular. We might as well be turkeys on a table of forks. But our Host contiues to deliver and protect us....that's the power of love.

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