Advent Guide: You BelongSample

Unconditional Love

Every family or extended family can be a mixed bag. Within our families we can have some people who are pleasant and sociable and maybe others who are ... not so much. But we can usually find someone who is a great example to all of us of unconditional love. In my family, that was my nephew, Lorne.

Lorne passed away in 2010 (on my birthday which is something hard to forget) at the age of 47. He had Down syndrome and was only four years younger than me, so we basically grew up together. We played a lot together and with other neighborhood kids.

Even at play, children can sometimes be mean to each other (I was a brat on occasion). Lorne never was. If someone was mean to him, he was never mean in return. Any offense was forgiven and forgotten immediately.

I didn't understand it then, but looking back what I saw was God's unconditional love in and through Lorne. I have known a lot of wonderful Christian people in my life but have probably never seen a greater example of God's love than what I saw and experienced in Lorne.

We are all made in the image of God. So was Lorne. He reflected God's image through his unconditional love, the kind of love God has for all of us. As we celebrate Christmas, let us reflect on the unconditional love of God that we have experienced in Christ.

Kevin McSpadden has been the chaplain at Baptist Retirement Community in San Angelo, Texas, for the last 20 years. He and his wife, Nancy, have three grown children and 12 grandchildren.