One Christmas during a season of grief, God showed me His deep love for me through a timely gift. The funny thing is that the gift was meant for someone else. But before I explain the strange circumstances of the mystery gift, I’d like to share some thoughts about love.

I don’t know what most draws you to God. His love is what won me over. There was tremendous turmoil in my childhood home. Mental health struggles within our nest ruffled feathers and caused havoc between the reasonably peaceful times. But even in peace, there was an underlying tension that made me doubt God loved my family. He didn’t seem to answer my Sunday school-inspired prayers.

No, I wasn’t an ideal follower of Jesus. I dabbled in faith just enough to know that it wasn’t safe to die without trusting in Jesus first. What I lacked was a personal relationship with Him. Our whole family lacked that. God only came up in conversations around home as a curse word.  

Going to church was uplifting. Coming home to a house where all the curtains were still closed and everyone else was still in nightclothes was a downer. It didn’t take long for my teenage years to prune my church attendance to nil.

It wasn’t until I attended college that I became interested in God again. The love I witnessed and felt during the closing prayer of a Christian intervarsity meeting spurred my search for a fellowship to attend.

After a couple of fumbling years of trying various churches, I was invited to a home care group. Love is what drew me to this warm group of friends. Their love drew me back to church. And God’s love healed me of an eating disorder soon after.

God’s love woos us and won’t give up on us.  

Now, let’s get back to the mystery gift. During my childhood, my dad would often listen to Roger Whittaker albums when he was feeling melancholy. He played the music loud enough for me to hear from my bedroom. Thankfully, I enjoyed the soothing sound of the man with the calming voice. So, many years later, when I had my own family, I mail-ordered a recently released Christmas album by this singer. My intent was to send it to my dad as a gift. But my dad died suddenly of an unexplained cause in November of that year.

The CD arrived at my door after my dad’s funeral. I had forgotten I ordered it. But it helped me mourn. For, like my dad’s probable reason for listening to Roger Whittaker, music helped me process feelings.

Love was why I ordered the gift. Love was why the timing of its arrival touched me so deeply. God knew I needed the extra comfort of music when my heart was grieving.  

Love drew me because Love knew I needed to lean into the softness of God’s hands during the hardness of life.

1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV says: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.  

And now I’d like to close with a poem:

Christmas is a celebration

Of God’s greatest gift to us

For through His Son Jesus Christ

He’s demonstrated perfect love.

~ wlm

I’m nosy to know what your favorite verse or quote about love is.

The podcast version of this three-part series is available on HopeStreamRadio.

Blessings ~ Wendy