I stared in horror at what I had done.
An anguished wail of despair exploded from the depths of my heart. On the floor at my feet, a crimson halo of blood spread from the head of the week-old kitten. I had just crushed it under one of my size fourteen hiking shoes.
It was an accident . . . a horrible accident. The kitten's mother had decided to move her new litter of three from the box where they were born to a new location. For some reason, she had dropped this kitten under the archway that leads from our living room to our kitchen. And there I had encountered it, late in the evening, as I moved to turn the house lights off for the night. With most of the lights already off, I simply didn't see it.
The tiny kitten cried and struggled feebly as the blood continued to spread. It absolutely tore my heart out. I sank to my knees, and the grief again erupted in a harrowing wail from somewhere deep inside me. Such a tiny, beautiful, helpless creature, and I had crushed the life out of it. As my eyes tried to fill with tears, I begged God to forgive me for killing one of His innocent creatures.
And then, in my spirit, I heard clearly: “This is how I feel whenever one of my children goes to Hell.”
Later that night, as I lay sleepless in bed, God's earlier words returned to me: “This is how I feel whenever one of my children goes to Hell.” And it began to sink into my thick skull and hard heart just how incredible His love must be to inspire such pain over each of us who is lost.
Now the thing is, that shouldn't be such a revelation. I've read the words and absorbed the stories in the Bible that describe His magnificent LOVE repeatedly. But sometimes, the mere words don't translate into my heart as they should.
However, this night, as I rolled my earlier anguish around in my head, as I thought about God's words in my spirit, these words bloomed to life in my heart: “And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is” (Ephesians 3:18). And suddenly I knew . . . I KNEW. God IS love, and HE loves me beyond all measure. Awesome. Absolutely awesome.
Have you experienced God’s love?
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
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Kevin Spencer likes to play with words, help others play with them, and is privileged to be a staff writer for Christian Devotions. He lives with his beautiful blessing of a wife, Charlotte, and his amazing collegiate grandson, Caleb.