I recently read a story about a young lady and young man who had grown up together and were almost inseparable until they graduated from high school. The girl’s family was more affluent than the boy’s family and she enjoyed the amenities of life more than he was able to. Their friendship was great, they loved each other, and they enjoyed each other’s company however the ways of the world came between them when he asked her to marry him.
She refused and told him he would never be able to give her what she wanted. She told him his weekly income didn’t match her daily spending and desires and she wanted more out of life than what he could provide. Dejected the young man went away from her and didn’t think he would ever see her again. Her love for him was strong and was built on years of companionship through their youth but it was conditional.
For those of us that are Christian understand about unconditional love. One only has to read John 3:16 to understand what unconditional love is. It doesn’t say anything about what you have obtained on earth. It doesn’t say anything about having wealth or being from a prestigious family. It says that if we believe in Jesus and have faith in Him that He is the one and only true God, then we will not perish but have everlasting life with Him in paradise.
God loves us and it doesn’t matter who we are, what we have, or the path we are on. Worldly possessions don’t matter to us when we accept Christ into our heart and understand where our eternal destination is. In today’s modern society we have allowed so many worldly views to lead us into marriages thinking we are in love but really not understanding what true, unconditional love is.
In the story I was reading the young man, even though he was poor, loved his girl unconditionally. Even though she said she loved him it was with condition that she would not lose anything materially that she was used to.
It was told that he ran into this young lady ten years later in a mall. She had married a man who could provide for her earthly needs even though she wasn’t very happy. As she talked with the person she turned away her husband walked up and joined their conversation recognizing the former boyfriend as his boss. After departing the woman’s husband told her his boss never married because a former girlfriend turned down his marriage proposal because he was poor and he never lost his love for her.
It turns out that the man that was jilted because of being poor made up his mind to do better and was now a multimillionaire owning great amounts of real estate and a construction company because he didn’t want to be a poor man all of his life. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 13:4, “Love suffers long and is kind, love does not envy…”
I wish I could say the story spoke about the Christianity of this couple but it didn’t. I can only speak about my marriage in which our love for each other is unconditional and what our nearly 50 years together has brought us, we did it together through God’s love and direction. We have been thoroughly blessed, even though we are not materially rich by any means, because of God’s unconditional love for us.
