Who loves you the most?

Day 19 — {FMF} — Who

I have a sweet neighbor who will be celebrating 75 years of life next week. She’s the kind of neighbor who after a long trip away, brings you a pot of hot soup and cake. Her kindness and gentleness often reminds me of my own grandma. 

We sat drinking coffee the other day and talked about our grandmas. She told me that she was raised by her grandma after her dad left them. Her uncle, her mother’s youngest brother, was only three years older than her. 

She chuckled at how naughty they’d been at times and yet how much patience her grandma had had with them. And the memory came to me — the day we left my abuelita in that small village in the Andes Mountains. 

The engine in the big camion was roaring loudly on the plaza square ready to take off at any minute, and I did not want to get left behind. So I ran to my grandma’s house which was behind ours and in my excitement, I kept yelling, “Hurry!”

But her failing health would not let her. She tried and in so doing — fell. As she got up, I saw the blood trickling down her legs. I should have stopped, gone back to her but I kept going. Without giving mind to her legs, she followed me. 

I climbed into the big truck with my younger sister and my grandma stood watching as the camion rolled away. To this day, I see her sweet face and her tender smile with which she loved me. I wish I could go back and give her a hug and tell her that I loved her in that moment. 

What the 8-year-old me didn’t know was that it would be the last time I would see my grandma for a long time. It was the day we left on the journey that would eventually end in Wash. D.C.

Back in my neighbor’s sunroom, my tears flowed freely and she told me how much she felt loved by her grandma too. 

My grandma’s love was one of the first visible signs of God’s great love for me. Like my neighbor, I knew that as naughty as I was, I was loved. Her love for me, helped me to see God’s unconditional love.

When I tuck my youngest into bed at night, I often ask, “Who loves you the most, buddy?” And he says, “Jesus!” 

“That’s right. And I love you too.”