Desperate pursuit of it:

I remember once during a trip to Mexico City, my friends and I ran across some starving dogs. I mean, these dogs were down to the bone. Well, we had bought some food that just...wasn't the best. It was so bad that we went without eating because we couldn't stand the taste, or the smell of it. So we threw it to the dogs and watched them fight over it, and fight over it, and fight over it...at the time (I was 14, so young, stupid, and immature) it was funny. Reflecting back on it though, it reminds me of a Proverb:

"A sated man loathes honey, but to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet." (27:7)

In a way, it's like a lot of guys and girls I know. I worked with youth (taking a break), yet a lot of those kids were in desperate search for love. They would take whatever was thrown in front of them. I'd watch girls get abused by a guy, yet because he offered some form of love in their opinion, they ate it up. No matter how bitter it was, they would still eat it all up. The woman at the well had experienced bitter love. Yet in just a small encounter with Jesus, she finally discovered true love. This song by Pedro the Lion really sums it up:

If you could really see

Then you would ask of me

She knew the well was far too deep

For him to wet his lips

But something told her that he spoke

Of so much more than all of this

When he spoke she wanted to believe

The things he said

But who could this man be

That she might never thirst again

Her heart raced

Could he be the one we've waited for

The one we've waited for

Abandoned Love:

Every once and a while there's a special on TV that talks about Romanian orphanages. To give you a picture of what it's like, it's basically hell on earth. These kids are dropped off at the orphanage and left to be. There are too many kids and too little workers. The babies are left with bottles at an early age to learn to feed themselves. They cry and cry to begin with, but eventually stop crying, knowing that no one will help them. These kids grow up without a physical touch and learn to rely solely on themselves. When they're adopted, they do not only not know how to receive love, but they reject it. The parents adopting have to hold the child while the child kicks and screams. In one segment, the father held onto this child while the child kicked and screamed and yelled. He clawed at the father to the point the father began to bleed. The father was crying but still held onto the child lovingly, showing the child love. Eventually the child calmed down, rested his head on the adopted father's shoulder, and fell asleep. The child had learned to accept love.

Some of us are that way, or we know people that way. They have grown up literal orphans or spiritual orphans who have not known love. Instead of seeking out love, they fear being abandoned again. Like the Romanian baby fears to cry knowing no one will come to his rescue, these people fear loving again knowing that it could not happen. When they encounter love, they do not know how to take it. They fight it, they reject it..., yet we should still love them no matter what. We should love them until they are broken and learn to accept love.

So which type are you? Are you desperately in search of love, taking even the bitter types of love in order to just get a feeling of it? Or are you rejecting God's love? Are you fighting against it? Are you the Romanian orphan in the arms of the Father? Whichever you are, remember this:

"See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are." 1 John 3:1a