| The costly truth of unconditional love
The costly truth of unconditional love
By: Scott Bessenecker
There is a story told about a couple who had longed for a child for many years. Not until they were entering middle age were they finally given a baby boy. There are few words to describe the joy of this couple at the birth of their son. They treasured him beyond description and showered him with affection. One day, when the boy was five or six, he was abducted from the preschool playground by a young man, and then molested and murdered. As difficult as it had been to describe their joy in the birth of their son, it was profoundly more difficult to describe their grief at losing him to such a heinous, criminal act.
What were the options for this distraught couple? They could have exacted vengeance by hunting down the perpetrator, torturing and killing him. They could have sought justice by prosecuting the young man in a court of law, hoping he would be found guilty, sentenced and imprisoned or executed. They could have shown mercy by dropping the charges against him and allowing him to go free. This couple, however, shocked everyone: they decided to give the young man grace. They not only dropped the charges against him, but they also paid for his lengthy period of rehabilitation and emotional healing, and then adopted him as their own son.
Grace is almost grotesque in its extremity. And any human story of incredible grace can only be, at best, just a shadow of God's grace, because anything good in us is simply a reflection of our Creator. His grace is the fullest expression of true love. We are like the murderous young man in the story. We constantly violate God's perfect law of love to seek our own gratification. God's grace not only withholds punishment we deserve, but also offers us, if we will accept it, the privilege of adoption into his family.
Submitted by Richard
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