Return To Sender

Have you ever received one of these messages, “Return to sender”? The Bible says in John 3:16 that:

“… God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, John 3:16)

But the message comes back, “Return To Sender.”

“He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” (John 1:10 & 11)

Have you ever received one of these messages? Have you ever carefully placed a message in an envelope, addressed it and sent it, but days later it is returned with a message that says, “Return to sender.”
More pointedly: have you ever sent some love? I don’t mean, ordinary love. I mean, love from the deepest recesses of your being, only to get a message back that says, “Return to sender”? I have. I gave more than Sir. William Shakespeare’s pound of flesh and it came back with the message, “Return to Sender.”. It hurts, and it hurts deeply. To deal with my own hurt, I first went to Chuck Swindoll’s book called, “Great Days With Great Lives.”. It’s a great book that I read and I catalogued the things in it that impressed me and he said this:
“If people know you love and value them, they’ll go to the wire for you. Paul told the Christians at Thessalonica that he loved them. They never got over it.”
I argued with Chuck about that statement because I believe that it is true most of the time, but there are times when that love comes back with the message, “Return to sender.” I was determined to find relief for my own pain, so I went to the Bible and asked God what to do about it. I asked God how should I handle this hurtful message and He reminded me that He gets the same response to His message everyday from those whom He loves deeply because John 3:16 says He loved the world. And what do we do? We return the message unopened. Now I know how He feels. It hurts!
Since He wrote the book on how we should live I was very interested in His response and I got it. It was as if the spiritual winds began to flip the pages of His book of Life until they landed on Galatians 6:9 and I will not paraphrase it but, “Perry-phrase it.” It says:
“Love again, and again, and again.”
Are you like the man who was slightly inebriated when — okay, maybe you are not inebriated, but he pulled out a list of family and friends and on the list was a schedule of things he was going to do for them and he indicated that much of what he was doing seemed lesse than appreciated but he just kept doing for them anyway.
So, I have my answer. “Love again, and again, and again.”
Do it for no other reason than the fact that it is in you to do it.