UNFLINCHING LOVE OF THE DONKEY

UNFLINCHING LOVE OF THE DONKEY This morning I was confronted with the title of love as a maverick; led to study the love story from a different point of view. I’d like to tell and/or remind you of a story between a man and his donkey. A master was angry with his servant for going against his direct orders and sent an assassin to kill him. However, the Donkey loved her rider (who is the servant referred to above) so much that she vied off the road to preserve his life twice and saved him from destruction the third time by laying down her life. The original story reads “…and she lay down…” giving her own life instead of her rider’s. After the mission to preserve her rider the following conversation ensued: DONKEY: “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” RIDER: “because you have mocked me, I would there were a sword in my hand, for now I had killed you” Referring to the escape the donkey undertook to keep his life by bruising his feet against a wall. DONKEY: “am I not your Donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Was I ever wont to do so to you? RIDER: “No” Hmmm!!! I am more than dumbfounded. What would I have done as the Donkey with my ability to speak? I would probably have spoken out to him in devastation. However, the Donkey still loved her rider when she wasn’t appreciated. What manner of love is this! I charge us today as we prepare for another week ahead to demonstrate this “kind” of love to others…DESIRE If you want to read the full story; find a Bible and open to the Book of Numbers, chapter 22.