God Loves You and So Do I

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God Loves You and So Do I

Jeff Cook

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:4–8a

“For Better or Worse, For Richer or Poorer, In Sickness and Health to death do us part?” How many of us have either said those words or heard them at a wedding ceremony? These are in the vows we make to each other on the day that we start our journey we all know as, “Man and Wife.” 

Now, fast forward 25 years. You and your wife are sitting in a Pulmonologist’s office listening to the doctor describing a severe lung disease that your wife has, while you listen trying to hold your emotions in tack. All along you are asking God, “Why is this happening?” “What did we do wrong?” “What do we do now?”

This happened to Sandra and me in 2008. Sandra was diagnosed with Alpha 1 and Stage 5 Emphysema. The weeks and months ahead were going to be filled with doctors, treatments, high medical bills, costly prescriptions and even lung transplant referrals which we are in the middle of now. Along with this, Sandra’s health has brought her to the point of permanent disability. All this time I am still asking God “Why is this happening to us? What we did do wrong? What do we do now?” 

To sit here a tell you I can remember the day and time when I let all of this go and turned it all over to God, would be hard to do. I think little by little he took the burden from me with the help of a lot of prayer and the blessing of a support group, including a church family and friends that have been there for us during this journey. 

And each day I am reminded what unconditional love is all about. You see, when you think you are at the end of you rope, unconditional love steps in and keeps you going. This brings me to another verse I bet you also heard at the same wedding ceremony: 1 Corinthians 13:4–8a.

My friends, these verses are the verses I remember each time I begin to question why things happen the way they do sometimes. I believe this is the love he has for each of us.