all we can do is love

Sometimes we are in a situation where all we can do is to love someone - that we love.

 

They make decisions that we don't agree with - or choices that are harmful to them - or experience circumstances or situations that are beyond their control.

 

And - there is nothing we can do.

 

All we can do is love.

 

That is hard for all of us.  We want to reach out and "make things right".  We want to turn the situation (or person) around for the good.

 

But in life we  will find ourselves without the ability or opportunity to do that - many times over.

 

All we can do is love.

 

As a 17-year-old Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy and Ruth Graham, was involved in a car accident. Speeding carelessly down a windy mountain road, Anne smashed into her neighbor, Mrs. Pickering.

 

Anne was too afraid to tell her father about the accident, so for the rest of the day she kept avoiding him. When she finally came home, she tried to tiptoe around her dad, but there he was, standing in the kitchen.

 

Anne tells what happened next (from her book, Wounded by God's people):

"I paused for what seemed a very long moment frozen in time. Then I ran to him and threw my arms around his neck …. I told him about my wreck—how I'd driven too fast and smashed into the neighbor's car. I told him it wasn't her fault; it was all mine. As I wept on his shoulder, he said four things to me:

• "Anne, I knew all along about your wreck. Mrs. Pickering came straight up the mountain and told me—and I was just waiting for you to come and tell me yourself."
• "I love you."
• "We can fix the car."
• "You are going to be a better driver because of this."

Anne says, "Sooner or later, all of us are involved in some kind of wreck—it may be your own fault or someone else's. When the damage is your fault, there's a good chance you'll be confronted by the flashing blue lights of the morality police. But my father gave me a deeper understanding of what it means to experience the loving, forgiving embrace of my heavenly Father."

 

Sometimes, all we can do is love - and maybe, just maybe, that might be enough.

 

Just a thought for a Thursday.