God Loves the Unlovable

I woke up this morning, having dreamed about  a friend from college who was one of the most socially awkward people I have ever met.  In my dream, we were at a camp for youth that I used to run, and he was sitting at a table with me and several of our friends.   He got up to get a drink, and before he returned one of the people sitting at the table with us, suggested we pull a prank on him. I  refused to allow them to pull the prank, because I knew that the reason he was at that camp was due to the fact that he was accepted by us.  His whole life had been one of rejection or being made fun of, and I wasn't going to allow that to happen.  Again, this was a dream and never happened in real life.


I woke directly from that dream, and immediately thought of the leper that Jesus touched in Matt 8:1-4.  Jesus was showing us the ways of the Father (See yesterday's post on God's Ways) through His actions.  He reached out and touched the Leper.  Touching the Leper was supposed to make Jesus unclean, but in the Kingdom of God, when He touches you, you become clean, He doesn't become unclean.   In other words, God is more powerful than any unclean thing!  


Jesus continues to demonstrate this love and acceptance of other outcasts and undesirables, meeting the women at the well, the women caught in adultery, the 10 lepers, the blind beggar, the tax-collectors and other sinners, to name a few.  These were all people that the religious community of the day would have rejected or avoided, and Jesus specifically told the story of the Good Samaritan to show this (See Luke 10:25-37) and to call us to act differently.  


In showing us the Father's heart, Jesus demonstrates the reality that should exist in our lives and in our churches, namely the loving of the outcast and unlovable.  So whether we are the outcast, unlovable or rejected or ashamed, or whether we know someone who fits those categories, God's message is the same - "I love you and accept you". 


Lord help us to clearly demonstrate this to those around us!  Help us to overcome any fear we have of being associated with, or being affected by someone that society rejects.   Help us to live out Your message to us in 1 John 4:4, "...the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."  Amen.