Write love

My son, Josh, turned me on to an cool story of love, acceptance and forgiveness. Check it out. TO WRITE LOVE ON HER ARMS by Jamie Tworkowski

In the story it states,

We often ask God to show up. We pray prayers of rescue. Perhaps God would
ask us to be that rescue, to be His body, to move for things that matter. He is
not invisible when we come alive. I might be simple but more and more, I believe
God works in love, speaks in love, is revealed in our love. I have seen that
this week and honestly, it has been simple: Take a broken girl, treat her like a
famous princess, give her the best seats in the house. Buy her coffee and
cigarettes for the coming down, books and bathroom things for the days ahead.
Tell her something true when all she's known are lies. Tell her God loves her.
Tell her about forgiveness, the possibility of freedom, tell her she was made to
dance in white dresses. All these things are true.

Why is this interaction with the girl in the story, the love showed, the kindnesses expressed, the forgiveness of God explained, all of these acts of love, why are they important?
Are they important because of who the girl is or who she might be?
If she were to become a great poet, would those acts be now justified?
If she was to be saved from her addictions would those acts be justified?
If she were to become a loving mother, would the acts be justified?
If she were to become a Christian, would the acts be justified?
OR
If she were to be unable to escape her addictions would those acts be unjustified?
If she remained an addict for the remainder of her life, would those acts be unjustified?
If she were never to become a Christian, would those acts be unjustified?

Can you see acts of love and kindness and forgiveness are of value within themselves? The recipient of those acts is largely irrelevant. Sure our heart goes out to a woman who condemns herself in profane terms, writing her indictments with a razor on her skin. But what of a woman who has been socialized to believe that she is worthless, or would be better off dead, or should have been the focus of an abortion to prevent her life? Does our compassion change if the woman has down's syndrome, or a birth defect of some kind?

I believe the story shared at the website is a true story, and may God help that woman to escape her addiction and her self abusive behaviors and find forgiveness. But may God also help His church to escape her addiction to comfort that leads to exclusion, exclusion which is really a form of self abuse through the exclusion of people God loves and wants in his church, and may He through the church's repentence provide forgiveness leading to repentence.

In the story, the girl condemns herself by writing f*** off on her arm. What is the church writing on the arms of persons with down's syndrome or mental retardation or mental illness? I pray that as the website says, we are writing love on those people for the sake of writing love on those people. That is the end. For the benefit we receive when we show love to another without any expectations or for no other reason than the showing of love.

McNair