No Love Lost

Over the years, I have met kids who have committed atrocities, heinous acts, things you don't like to speak or think about. And, over the years, I have learned to see past these things, these "acts" and see them instead...learn why, understand how this could be, find not the excuse but the explanation...and love them anyway.

Recently I learned that a kid I know was involved in something of this sort to the degree I had hoped he was not. And when I learned of this, I thought about him...what I knew and appreciated about his personality, all the hugs, the talks, the cheers and the corrections, the smiles, chiding him for having potato chips for breakfast, supporting his grief when a parent died, remembering my own disbelief when I learned initially that he had been allegedly involved in something terrible because, to me, he was a "good kid"...

And as I thought about all this, I said to myself, "No love lost".  And there isn't. I still love this kid. I don't like what he allegedly did...but I still love him. When I wrote about him in my journal I used the endearment "Beloved (kid's name)"...because he is to me...

Isn't that the way God sees us? His own errant children? And although we may not commit slights of major proportion, he who sins in one way is guilty of all. Yet He forgives us, blots it out when we ask forgiveness, keeps us justified because, if we are believers, we are covered in the blood of Christ.  How can we do any less with others? Even if they aren't believers?

Granted...I feel blessed that I have never been the victim of a major crime, nor has any family member. I don't know the feelings I might have if someone committed a heinous act against me or someone I love. But I would hope beyond hope that I could still extend forgiveness and God's love towards them...even if I didn't know them. It's easy for me not to loose love for this kid...because I know him. I have pictures of us together, I cared for him and trusted him (and still do). That probably wouldn't be as easy to do for someone I didn't know...but I don't think that would matter to the Lord. Forgiveness and love for our fellow man isn't supposed to be a choice--we're commanded to do so.