Silent, Lowly Love

Love. What is it like? 

At times, it’s silent and lowly.  

He quiets me and beckons for me to look. 

A baby is nestled up to me, asleep. She feels safe and loved.  

She knows she is cared for.  

She knows she will have her needs met by me if she cries. 

Sometimes, it seems she can’t get close enough to me.  

She hangs on tight with her little arm around my shoulder.  

I fight the restlessness inside. There is so much to do.  

I feel like I have accomplished nothing. 

But He settles me again, and motions towards the baby. 

“This is kingdom work,” He whispers.  

“Why?” I ask.  

I won’t walk away from this later and feel like I’ve accomplished anything.  

I won’t have a checked-off to-do list to show for this day.  

I won’t be able to talk about some grand daring feat I managed to pull off. 

It doesn’t seem to matter much in the bigger picture of things, my feelings say. 

But then, His answer comes sweetly and with a sureness I cannot question.  

“...’Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these..., you did it to Me.’” (Matthew 25:40) 

The Kingdom is not about tasks; it is about people.  

And the least noticed and cared about people on this earth are the ones that He has a special desire to love and spend the strength of His children on.  

The most vulnerable ones are the ones He seeks to rescue and protect through His people.  

The brokenhearted, the weak, the desperate –these are the ones whose hearts He seeks to bind up with His love through His own beloved ones.  

So, yes, there are days when I sit with the baby sleeping on me, knowing she will not sleep anywhere else because she needs the comfort of a loving embrace.  

There are days where the to-do list is no shorter at the end than it was at the beginning. 

But these are usually the days spent responding to the needs of children –those whose hearts and lives matter to God.  

If we realized just how important this is to Him, we would take joy in these interruptions, in the days going awry, the plans being changed and messed with.  

These are our opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus to some of the “least of these”, whom the world overlooks in search of more “important” work, but whom He deems of highest value.  

I look up into the eyes of Jesus, realizing that He is watching, wanting to spend me –His child- on this precious one I have in my arms. 

The servant King asks me to follow Him wherever He is, and to the surprise of many, He is here, in this lowly place, quietly embracing a little baby whose heart is hurting, whose life has been turned upside down, in comfort and love.  

And I get to be the arms and heart through whom He is doing it.  

So, be still, my heart, and learn. Learn what His love is like. 

He never asks you to do something that He Himself is not doing.  

So, join Him in His work. Let His love flow through you onto this little one.  

This is where He is, so stay and let His love change you.