UNEXPECTED KINDNESS (May 31, 2024)

There’s no accounting for love.

Nothing in our calculations of expected human outcomes would lead us to predict the presence—or persistence—of kindness. We’ve learned through thousands of years of history to grimly rely on the awful realities of hate, of vengeance, of unrelenting cruelty—between clans, against other races, pitting nation against nation. These are our signature achievements as a species.

But what is it that motivates a billion daily acts of caring, of forgiveness, of refusing that dreadful narrative of blood and violence? Kindness seems unnatural because it isn’t in our nature as broken, wary, self-protecting people.

The Bible couldn’t be clearer about the origin of love. “In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “We love because He first loved us”(1 John 4:19).

The grace that has always filled the heart of God is daily seen wherever people practice tenderness, protect the weak, and serve the good of others. It is rich evidence that the Father of all love will not abandon us.

Receive the love from which all kindness springs.

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott