Love Always Perseveres
It's been such a privilege having Brian Helsby here in the studio this week, sharing stories from his new book, God's Love Stories. So we've got one more for the week. Thanks, Brian.
Brian:
Well, 1 Corinthians 13 ends with this powerful statement on love: "Love never fails." Love never fails! How powerful is that? Most of my life, I’ve done youth work with Youth for Christ and with my church. For 35 years of my life, I actually actively ran a youth group somewhere—Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg—just loving young people and seeing the power of God demonstrated in the lives of young people. The book has many of these stories of God's love demonstrated to young people.
The Story of Natalie
But let me end our time together with the story of Natalie. Natalie was in a children's home that Youth for Christ was running in Durban. When I was national director visiting Durban, I was asked if I wanted to go with Natalie to visit her baby. She had a baby about a year old. Natalie had been living on the streets and prostituting herself in order to survive, and now had a one-year-old baby that was now safe in a children's home.
And so we went to visit Natalie’s baby, who was living in a different children's home. As I walked into the dormitory where all the babies were, the younger babies, like Natalie’s baby, were in little cots. But there was also a group of about 30 children, between the ages of one and three, standing around a house mother who had one big pot of porridge and one spoon, and was trying to feed all these kids.
A Simple Act of Love
Half the kids, when they saw me walk in the door, left the house mother and came to stand at my feet with their arms lifted up, wanting to be picked up. And so I picked up the first child, hugged it and put its cheek next to mine, and prayed that somehow this child would experience God's love. Then I put it down, picked up the next child and the next child, and noticed that once a child had been hugged, they went back and got another mouthful of food, and once they got another mouthful of food they came back to be hugged again.
And so it went on, hug after hug. Eventually, even with my body, I got tired, and so I sat on the floor, and all these kids just swarmed over me! Eventually, Natalie came back, and they dug under the children, they found me and took me home.
The next morning, I woke up early and remembered and pictured all those kids, not knowing me—a stranger—but desperate to be loved, desperate to be held. And I thought of the world in which we live, of how people are so desperate for some kind of love.
We are called not just to pick people up but to sit on the floor with them. It’s a lot easier than picking them up. To sit on the floor, to love them where they are, and allow God's love to flow in us and through us.
We can make a difference as we share God's love.
Getting the Book
Luke:
Well, Brian, thank you. It's been so inspiring hearing you speak today here in the studio, and I’m sure everyone who’s listened has enjoyed it. I’ve got my copy of the book—I can’t wait to read it. Where can listeners find this book?
Brian:
Yes, well, you can always write to Heartlines and look us up. But the easiest way is to go to Takealot or Amazon, which is now in South Africa, and also Kindle. You can get a soft copy on Kindle.
Luke:
Awesome. Thank you, Brian, and thank you, everybody, for listening. I hope that Brian's stories have inspired you to go and love like you have been loved.
