By Guest Columnist, Spencer Sullivan, Pastor, Pelahatchie Baptist
As I write this today, my family and I are in the midst of a life-changing week. A few days ago, Melanie and I became grandparents.
Just typing out those words seems more like a dream than a reality. I’ll be honest, as soon as we found out our daughter-in-law was pregnant, the whole idea of being a grandfather has been hard for me to reconcile. I don’t feel old enough to be a grandfather. I haven’t felt ready for that season of my life to begin. You may think this is ridiculous and it is, but I still like to consider myself as a “young adult”.
However, I had a moment the day our granddaughter was born where perhaps I finally came to grips with the reality check that I’m not young anymore. After sharing the news of our granddaughter’s birth with a good friend from overseas, he actually said to me: “It is not good, but you must accept it. You are an old man now!” He was certainly joking with me, but still, a grandfather? Every person in my life that has graduated to grandparenthood has gone on and on about how wonderful grandchildren are! How this is the best part of life! But we still have teenage sons! We’re still raising our own kids and now we have a granddaughter? Is this real? As you can see, it has been a process for me to accept this new chapter of our lives. But here’s the thing: as soon as I laid eyes on my granddaughter, I was absolutely in love! She’s the most beautiful baby girl that has ever been born and you cannot convince me otherwise!
As I think about this deep new love that we have for our granddaughter, Melanie reminded me of certain realities that pregnant moms experience while carrying their babies. Particularly in the latter months of pregnancy, things can get really, really uncomfortable. While still in the womb, this precious baby girl naturally drained my daughter-in-law’s energy. Unexpectedly, she would kick her and move in uncomfortable ways. She even fed off of her. But all the while, my son and daughter-in-law, me and Melanie, her other grandparents, and more would all lay down our lives for her. This was true from the beginning, even before she was born. My granddaughter hasn’t done anything to deserve or earn this kind of deep and passionate love. She is loved this way simply because she is ours.
This likely makes sense to you as you consider the love you have for your own children, grandchildren, etc. But I’d like to challenge you to consider this idea as it relates to God’s incredible love for you and me. We have absolutely done nothing to deserve His love, yet we have done plenty to confirm we are unworthy of it. Yet, He loves us anyway with this deep, strong, loyal, unending, unfailing, unconditional love that doesn’t really make sense accept to understand that we are His. The apostle John wrote: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Likewise, the apostle Paul wrote: “but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Talk about a love that doesn’t make any sense at all! Yet, God loves us not because of any merit of our own but just simply because we are His. Do you know this love of God? He loves you and He’s done everything necessary to adopt you into His family. The response He desires is repentance from sin and faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent and believe today and experience the love of God as a son or daughter of the Most High!
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