What does it mean to love unconditionally? I have heard it said and have talked about it many times in my life. Jesus had unconditional love for us, but I do not think that I have more fully grasped what unconditional love is more than last week at King’s Garden Orphanage.
This feeling of such love is unrivaled. To show up somewhere, where these kids have no pre-knowledge of you, your name, your background, your faults or any idea of who you really are, and they run out and cling to you. There were no conditions or requirements that I had to me in order for them to come to me and want to be held or hugged. They simply wanted to be around me and be loved. The love I may have thought I was giving to them was reciprocated a thousand times more by them. I thought I knew what unconditional love was up to that point, but I have been mistaken.
I cannot fathom the extent of my Father’s unconditional love. All He asks of me is that I call on Him and give up myself. I learned so much about the depth and authenticity of God’s love this past week from kids at an orphanage. I learned first hand through a personal experience about God’s unconditional, never ending, never changing love. I have known it and experienced it before, but this encounter made it so much more real to me!
