Loving the Least of These...

What is love? Is it your first kiss? Is it when you heart skips a beat when they touch you? Is it your first time with someone? Is it when you see your child for the first time? Is it when you say I do?  Is it supposed to hurt so much? Is it real?
God has been challenging me this week about what it means to love someone. Right now I am reading a book by Heidi Baker called Compelled by Love. If you haven't read it, you should. Anyway, it's going through the Beatitudes and the journey God took her on, for her to understand them. As I sit and read it I am so overwhelmed by the way she talks about the children of her orphanages in Mozambique, Africa. She loves these kids with more love, than I have ever imagined. She told a story that has stuck out. One day she found this little girl lying under a tree with scabies, lice, and a bloated belly from malnutrition. She was dying. They took her to a hospital where the doctors were all saying she wasn't going to make it but Heidi knew God had the power to heal her. Heidi she said heard God speak in that moment to pick her up and show her love. Heidi later said that she also caught lice and scabies but it was worth it. The end result was that God gave her life.
She loved this little girl even though she caught the things she had. She loved a little girl that in the world's eyes was dying and not worth it. This, my friends, is love. Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. Love is not jealous. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perservers. Love, my friends, never fails.
So if by chance you come across the "unlovable" remember, Father loved you even though you were once unlovable. When you look at someone who's broken and nowhere else to go, remember: whatever you do to the least of these, you do to Him. Jesus loves. And so should you. That's my challenge to you today. To love. Everyone. And think about what that word means to you. I love you with ALL my heart.  <3 God bless you!!