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How does it feel to be loved by someone for just being you, even when you are unreasonable and rebellious? How does it feel to lose that someone who always had your back? Or how does a broken family hurt the children and load them with luggage they carry for life?

Today, I watched 3 movies and they all shared a theme – a parent’s love or the lack thereof. It made me very emotional and two things came to mind. My own parents and my Heavenly Father.

My parents are the sweetest people ever. They may not seem like it but they really are! Of course, there are times when we don’t see eye to eye but they are the most important people in the world to me. And even though I love them immensely, it breaks my heart that I will never love them like they love me – so fully, so patiently, so unconditionally.

I am so grateful that I was brought up in a loving home, a home that had Christ as the foundation. I owe all my success to my parents, I owe it to the opportunities they have provided, the guidance they have given and the love they have showered. I would say most Asian parents often struggle to show their children love in a way that is easily understandable. Hugs are rare and ‘I love you’ even rarer but yet I see their love so clearly in their actions. I see it in the dinner that is faithfully prepared every day, in the folded clothes in my wardrobe, in the fervent prayers for me and in the way they won’t let me settle for second best, just to mention a few.

I hope I will always remember how much my parents love me. I pray very earnestly right now that I will always be grateful and never for a moment, take them for granted. I pray that I will be a good daughter, making them proud of who I am and who I will be. And even though my parents are way better than I deserve, I know they are by no means perfect. As a human, they will have their limitations and flaws. Only my Heavenly Father is perfect.

If I cannot even match my earthly parents’ love, how will I even begin to comprehend God’s love for me. How can God have the patience for me, an adopted child who frequently screams ‘I don’t need you’ in her actions but comes crawling back when she needs a fix. I will never fully understand the sacrifice of Good Friday and yet I draw from that living water. Father, I thank you for your grace and mercy extended to me, an unloveable adopted child. I thank you and claim the promise that you have raised me up with Christ and seated me with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

All of us want to be loved, but we try to find it in the wrong places. Find your satisfaction and fullness in Christ, the one who is perfect and could never disappoint, the one whose love is unfathomable, unchanging and eternal.

Sophie Annalise
20 April 2019

Inspired during the flight to Toronto