It feels like I’m constantly cleaning my front window and its frame and the patio below it.
But I finally found a spot where the squirrels can’t get to
my bird feeder! It’s held to my front kitchen window by little suction cups,
right in front of the table where I normally spend my time. I can watch the
various types of birds fly into it to feast. It brings me great joy!
This year I’ve had so many new birds in the yard, it amazes
me. I’ve even seen birds that are just passing through on their migration journey.
They’re all so beautiful. The Northern Flicker is one of my favorites.
But the mess they continuously make is getting out of hand. Not
only do they drop the shells of the various seeds – they poop everywhere!
And of course, my “friendly” neighborhood squirrels haven’t
given up trying to get to it. They make an even bigger mess. I’m constantly
finding their paw prints all over the windows. They must spit when they try to
climb up the glass, or at least that’s what I’m telling myself it is each time
I clean the windows.
But for the joy set before me, I clean the mess.
This is such a minor comparison that I hesitate to make it,
but…
As I sit here watching the birds come and go, I’m thinking
about all the messes I make that God helps me clean up or cleans up for me.
Does He grow weary with cleaning up my messes – of forgiving
my sins? Does He grow impatient with me? Does He get angry when He sees yet
another mess I’ve made? Does He throw His hands up in the air and say, “What am
I going to do with this girl?”
Of course not. “But for the joy set before Him….” He
endured what it takes to clean up my messes. (Hebrews 12:2)
He reveals to us the perfect example of unconditional love.
He displays boldly for me to see – how to live out the love chapter in 1 Corinthians.
“Love suffers long and is kind; love
does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave
rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not
rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all
things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
This is agape love; this is the kind of love God has toward me,
toward all of us – the kind of love Jesus commanded us to have for one another.
“A new commandment I give to you,
that you love one another; as I have loved you...” – John 13:34 (NKJV)
This is love that never wearies of me. Love that never lets
go of me. Love that never disappoints me – even when I don’t understand it.
This is how He loves us. Take a few minutes and ponder those
verses. Is this how we love others?
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