My father loved God, but he understood God’s love to be conditional. And, although he loved me fiercely, that love, too, came tainted with conditionality. My husband loves God and, because of his deeper understanding of God’s love, is able to love me unconditionally. By God’s grace and my husbands love I am being healed of the consequences of conditional love and learning to walk in freedom.
As I addressed my issues and grew in my personal relationship with the Father He began to bring me the unlovely to love. One-by-one His children who had been wounded by inadequate love took up residence in my heart and sometimes my home. He taught me to count as progress very small increments of change. He would hear my cries of weariness but offer no release. I have to learn the meaning of long-suffering by suffering long. I count my commitment, not in months, but in decades. But His love flows down.
Sometimes my newly-strengthened loved ones report to me the failings of one of their loved ones, describing in detail how others are missing the mark. I listen patiently to their impatience, but with a saddened heart. Was it all in vain? For they are judging others with the same harshness with which they were once judged.
When the time is right I must carefully remind them of their previous condition. “All you are required to do,” I tell my dear apprentice, “is what was done for you. Bring them before the Father and pray for their deliverance. Cry out in pain for them as though their pain were your own. Love them unconditionally as you are loved. Let His love flow down, through you.”
Occasionally I receive a word or token of appreciation from one I have so desperately loved. They finally get it. Love always flows down. And, once in a while, Love Flows Back Up!
By Tina Green © 2008
