We will still love you

The other day we were sitting at Starbucks with our good friend Milissa, who is the manager at Startbucks. We were eating some dinner and just talking. Milissa was saying she was nervous about her driving test. (Side note: She is 27 years old and is just now attempting to get her license. Quite different from America, huh? And if you want to get your license in China, you must go through an agency to help you learn how to drive, and only after you have completed a program with them can you take your drivers test.) Anyway, Milissa was talking about how she hopes she can pass the test. That reminded Stan and I that we had gotten her a present as a “Yay you got your license!! present”. So we told her we got it for her and hoped that would be encouraging for her and motivation for her to do well! She was surprised and was so excited. Then she said, “But what if I will fail the test? Will you still be my friend and give me the present?” We said, “Of course we will still be your friend. We love you. In fact we love you unconditionally.” She said, “What is this one… unconditionally?” We explained what a condition is, and she knew what that was. Then we explained that unconditional love means no matter what the condition, I will still love you. You can fail your drivers test, but it doesn’t matter. We will still love you. You can be in a bad mood, and have a bad day and we will still love you. You can do something that offends us, but we will still love you. You can do something shameful and we will still love you. You can be mad at us and we will still love you. We can be mad at you and still love you. Anything that happens, we will still love you.

As we were taking turns saying all these things to her, she was nodding her head and every once in a while she would smile her big smile and say, “Yeah…. yeah.” She said, “Oh wow, it’s so wonderful! Unconditional love.” We exchanged smiles and agreed unconditional love is the best kind.

This made me think about some things. As the realization set in, it made me a little sad. I thought about the talk Pan Pan and I had a couple of weeks ago about the Chinese culture’s disposition on love and the way they use the word “love”. I told Stan that it makes me sad to think about how they are robbed of unconditional love. Pan Pan told me how many Chinese people feel about love, and everyone is different, but she said this is how the majority of people feel about love. So, when I tell someone in the Chinese culture about our Big Brother and His father unconditionally loving us, how can they help but want it and cherish it? Hold onto it forever and never let go? The problem is, breaking through the wall, which has been put up. This wall says that our Father is a big mean man in the sky who only wants to punish us for doing wrong things. This is not an easy wall to break down. It takes time, and patience and understanding. It takes a soft answer, not a harsh word. It’s difficult, but I’m happy He has helped me to realize He will still Love me, so I can share that with those in this culture.

Please keep these girls in your thoughts. Thanks for reading; I love you all!