Lesson from a Little Star

Half-way around the world, a child of mine found a little one who was helpless, disfigured, and abandoned unwanted. There are many such little ones. In a sense, they are all worthy of equal consideration, since there are teeming thousands of equally useless throwaways; that is to say, no consideration at all from the perspective of one who has his own family to bless.

Yet my child had compassion on the little one, and took it to her heart. To my surprise, I found myself drawn to this foundling. It was not that I was required to love the little one, nor was there any prospect of personal gain to be found in such a response on my part. It was a response to my love for my own child. Inherent in the love of a father is an automatic response that he love also whomsoever his child loves.

In this I was brought to the remembrance of the words of Jesus to His disciples immediately before He was taken from them:

Jn 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my Name, he may give it you.

Jn 16:23 And in that day shall ye ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name, he will give it you. [24] Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my Name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. [25] These things have I spoken unto you in parables; but the time will come, when I shall no more speak to you in parables, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. [26] At that day shall ye ask in my Name, and I say not unto you, that I will pray unto the Father for you; [27] For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

Jn 17:20 I pray not for these alone, but for them also which shall believe in me, through their word, [21] That they all may be one, as thou, O Father, art in me, and I in thee, even that they may be also one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

It might be asked what the idea of requesting anything in the name of Jesus would have to do with this, unless the understanding is present that it is not the ability to obtain something in His name that He was presenting, but the concept that the Father would love the Believers in Jesus simply on the basis of Jesus' love for them. "For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God."

I find no clearer explanation of the Grace of God than that.