September 21, 2009
Loved
A few years ago I bought a Steiff Teddy Bear at the Salvation Army for ten-cents. He was about 6 inches tall and had patches of hair rubbed off in a few places because he was so very well loved. I wasn’t emotionally attached to Teddy so I put him on EBay and he sold for $65.00. The little guy was worth way more than I imagined and you have to wonder what he’d have been worth if he’d been in good condition. Jesus said, “Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matt 10:31 ESV) And to think, none of us are in the best condition…
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Gail;
-----When I was a child I had a Teddy Bear which I claimed to love dearly. His name, of course, was Tet, and he was a constant home companion. I conversed with him, hugged him, kissed him, and wore most of his fur off. I would harness him up to a bandana and take him outside for afternoons of parachuting. Sometimes I would not give him the advantage of a bandana so I could enjoy all the different ways he would bounce. I guess it depended on what the TV had recently served up to my imagination. And when the doctor shows became popular, Tet acquired several stitched up incisions. Although I professed an abiding love for him, the treatment I gave him testified to no more than a want for him and entertainment from him.
-----All of the freedom’s lost to government’s intervention for the people’s needs, the overwhelming divorce rate, and the general inconsideration passed around between neighbors demonstrates humanity’s confusion between love and desire. I don’t know if you paid a dime for that Steiff Teddy bear to give it a good home (as if a clothe bag of cotton could care,) and I am sure the person who gave you sixty-five dollars for it was being less providential and more desiring. We claim to love one another but show only a desire for them. Even our best efforts are often a misdirected attempt to simply practice our own righteousness, or worse yet, to merely exhibit it. We know we only desire when we try to give according to what we agree with. But we love when we try to understand another’s perspective about their need, and that love is most verified when we find ourselves then giving in ways that rather surprise and teach us.
-----God did not pay the high price for His own to just have them. He understood our need and valued us according to what we lacked and should have, regardless of what we were not and could only desire to be. In fact, that is why He paid a great price. So we who were poor and worthless in our own abilities could have Him whom we desired. He understood our need in our situation and supplied us first with what was truly to our benefit, removing us from the impending doom to come. Then into our continuing lives He providentially discerns between desires and needs and carries us to that destination for which He purchased us. It is this love we must learn, the love that helps supply the other rather than helping to possess the other. And I believe our slippery inclination to control, use, and possess the objects that contact our lives, that penchant to even define life for ourselves, is much the reason why some will frantically respond to Jesus on That Day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” (Matt 7:22)
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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