Touching and thankful for His Love! Just Because Youre Mine But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel, Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! - Isaiah 43:1 Mace could sing one song with great gusto -- just one: Jesus Loves Me. Jesus loves me, this I know, For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, They are weak but He is strong. He would throw his head back and hold on to that first Yes in the chorus as long as he could, and then he would get tickled and almost fall out of his chair. Sometimes -- when I think back on those days that seem so long ago -- I can still hear him giggle. How special that memory is to me. . . I never doubted for a moment that Jesus loved our profoundly retarded little boy. It didnt matter that he would never sit with the kids in the back of the church and, on a certain special night, walk down the aisle, take the pastor by the hand, and invite Jesus into his heart. It was entirely irrelevant that he could not quote a single verse of Scripture, that he would never be able to reason or to comprehend Gods love, that he would never be a dad -- I knew that Jesus loved Mason. What I could not comprehend, what I could not accept, was that Jesus could love Masons mother, Anabel. I believed that in order for anyone to accept me, to love me, I had to perform for them. My standard for getting love was performance-based, so I performed constantly, perfectly. And I was convinced that if anyone ever really got to know me, he or she wouldnt like me. Mace could never have performed for anyones love . . . but oh, how we loved him. His condition eventually deteriorated to such a degree -- and so rapidly -- that we had to institutionalize him when he was very young, so we enrolled him in the Enid State School for Mentally Handicapped Children. We drove regularly the 120 miles to see him, but on this particular weekend he was at home for a visit. He had been with us since Thursday evening, and it was now Saturday afternoon. As soon as the dinner dishes were done, I would gather his things together and take him back to his house. I had done this many times before, but today God had something in mind that would change my life forever. As I was washing the dishes, Mason was sitting in his chair watching me, or at least he was looking at me. Thats when it began -- spinning emotions, tumbling stomach, the familiar sickening thoughts of separation and defeat: In just a little while, Im going to start packing Masons toys and his clothes, and take him away again. I cant do that. I simply cannot do it. I stopped washing dishes and got down on my knees in front of Mace. I took his dirty little hands in mine and tried desperately to reach him. Mason, I love you. I love you. If only you could understand how much I love you. He just stared. He couldnt understand; he didnt comprehend. I stood up and started washing dishes again, but that didnt last long. This sense of urgency, almost panic, came over me, and once more I dried my hands and knelt in front of my precious little boy. My dear Mason, if only you could say to me, I love you, Mother. I need that, Mace. Nothing. I stood up to the sink again. More dishes, more washing, more crying. But now thoughts, foreign to my way of thinking, began filtering into my conscious awareness. I believe God spoke to me that day, and this is what He said: Anabel, you dont look at your son and turn away in disgust because hes sitting there with saliva drooling out of his mouth; you dont shake your head, repulsed because he has dinner all over his shirt or because hes sitting in a dirty, smelly diaper when he ought to be able to take care of himself. Anabel, you dont reject Mason because all the dreams you had for him have been destroyed. You dont reject him because he doesnt perform for you. You love him, Anabel, just because he is yours. Mason doesnt willfully reject your love, but you willfully reject Mine. I love you, Anabel, not because youre neat or attractive, not because you do things well, not because you perform for Me -- I love you just because youre Mine. Incredible! Unbelievable! I had struggled for so many years, hating my performance patterns and yet living to perform, driven to perform, searching out the praise of people and thirsting for the love of God that I thought could come only to those who performed well enough to merit it. Yet God had just shown me that He loved me in spite of anything and everything, and He had shown me in a way that I could understand -- through my dear, sweet Mason. Do you understand? You dont have to do anything for Him; you dont have to be something for Him. You can know that there is Someone who loves you not because of the way you do or dont look, or because of the talents you do or dont have. All you have to do is accept it: He loves you just because you are His. * * * Well, thats not the end of Masons story. It wasnt long after that Sunday with him that Bill, our son Preston, and I went to visit him in Enid. We held his hand, stroked his hair, and talked to him. And then we prayed. God, by Your grace weve lived victoriously and have used Maces little life and influence for Your glory . . . but we feel that he has suffered enough and that all the influence for Christ that can be realized from his life has pretty well been exhausted. God, if it be Your will, we ask that you take him to be with You. We kissed Mason goodbye and headed home. It was the very next morning when the school called to say that Mason had unexpectedly passed away during the night -- and we knew that he had slipped away to be with Jesus. The Far East Broadcasting Company in Cheju, Korea, received a letter from Bill a short time later: . . . there was some insurance money. It belongs to God. We pass it along to FEBC for use in the China-Cheju Island project. . . . Masons gift helped build a transmitter building for the 250,000-watt radio signal that now beams the gospel of Christ to China, Russia, and Japan. And it is because of Mason that people will continue to learn of Jesus, of His saving grace . . . and of the fact that He loves us just because we are His.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 17:57:35 +0000
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