REFLECTIONS

Sacrificial Love

Munna’s fried chicken—yum, what a gift! If our family had had marketing insights, Colonel Sanders might have never been known. I still picture the family around the table with moist lips anticipating the delicious treat piled high on a platter before them. And by meal’s end the platter was empty and so were all the plates except for the piles of picked clean bones on them. And Munna never ate a bite of it. She ate the feet.

In my life, I have never known anyone else who ate chicken feet. She said she liked them, but I think Munna chose to leave the good pieces for everyone else. Sacrificial love.

Love manifests in sacrifice. Where there is love, sacrifice is not made in the course of duty, or to follow tradition, or in obedience to command. Sacrifice is as much a part of love as those warm feelings from the heart.

Giving back to God is an act of sacrificial love; but too often we look upon it as a duty. We encourage the act of giving during fundraising campaigns, but it is encouraged more as obedience to a command. And I suppose that the sacrifices prescribed to the Israelites through the laws given to Moses were also perceived to be legal requirements imposed by God. God wants obedience, but He is really looking for gifts from the heart.

“The multitude of your sacrifices — what are they to me?” says the Lord. / “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; / I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. (Isaiah 1:11)

God wants our love. A strong expression of it is found in sacrifices we make. Munna expressed love for us by choosing for herself the chicken pieces that no one else would eat. It was an act of sacrificial love that seemingly didn’t feel like a sacrifice to her. It was just something she did without giving much thought to her sacrifice.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Sacrificial love is a gift from the heart, given for the wellbeing of another, not as a duty, or a tradition, or a command. It may not even feel like a sacrifice when we just do it.

Any pain suffered is quickly to be soothed by the sense of God’s pleasure.

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

Click here for Printer Friendly Version