Loving the Unlovely

Today at church a friend told me that my neighbor had been to the earlier service.
“My neighbor?  Which one?”
“Oh, that one across the street I don't particularly like.  That neighbor? “
“Oh, you mean the one I'VE lived across the street from for 5 years and never invited to church?”

Yes, it was that neighbor.

So here's my conversation with God after church today as I'm cleaning up the van.
Julie:  “Loving the unlovely…..hmm.
            God, why do you call us to love the unlovely? “
God:  “Well, Julie, you were once unlovely.”
Julie:  “I was?”  (I kinda think a little highly of myself, don't             you think?)
God:  “Yes, before I sent Jesus.  And…I loved you anyway.                  That's why I sent him.”
Julie:  “So, you call me to love the unlovely because it makes                 me more like Him?”
God:  “Yes.  And because you were once that way too.
Julie:  “Oh….I get it.  You're not asking me to do anything you                 haven't already done.”
God:  “Yes.”

I know I sometimes think of myself as unloveable but unlovely?  I also know I sometimes think too highly of myself.  But now the playing field has been leveled.  I too have been shown I was once unlovely.  We all were.

“Thank you God.
Julie”