Love one another

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12

 

 한두 달 전의 일입니다. 한 아기가 태어나자마자 버려졌다는 뉴스가 온 토론토가 긴급뉴스로 전해졌습니다. 알고 보니 버려진 것이 아니라 혼자서 아기를 낳던 젊은 엄마가 감당을 못하여 119를 부르는 과정에서 일어난 일이라고 합니다. 확실하게 발표되지는 않았지만 들려오는 이야기로는 아기 엄마가 한국인이었다고 합니다. 결혼도 안 한 젊은 청년이 아기를 가지게 되자 부모에게 이야기도 못 하고 마음을 추스르고자 캐나다로 건너왔고 갑자기 아이를 낳게 된 것이겠지요. 젊은이(엄마)의 마음이 얼마나 힘들었을까요.

 우연히 책에서 읽은 내용이 마음을 움직입니다. 우리도 어떤 경우에든지 자녀들을 인격적으로 대하며 포용하고 감싸 안을 줄 아는 부모가 되었으면 좋겠습니다.     

 

 <Outstreched arms/ LaDonna Galtin>

 The morning started off in the usual way. Our daughter, Annie, pulled away from the curb of our home in her little black Mustan and headed off to school just like she had every other morning fo that fall semester. She was a senior at our suburban Dallas high school and would be in the first graduationg class of the new century. Annie was really enjoying her seinor year and looking forward to going to college where she planned to become a second-grade schoolteacher.

 At 9:30 A.M., I was having my second cup of coffee(okey, it was really my third!) and checking my e-mail in my home office. The home phone rang. The school nurse said, “Annie is here in my office, and she has something she needs to tell you.” Well, a huge lump jumped up in my throat as my daughter got on the phone. Between her sobs I could barely make out what she was saying, but there was no mistake about what I heard, “Mom, I’m pregnant.”

 I stifled s sob of my own and said, “Come home Honey, just come home.” I immediately called my husband, Tim, on his cell phone. He was en route to the church where he is the paster of worship and administration. Through tears I told him the news, and he headed back home.

 A few minutes later I heard the garage door open, signaling Tim’s arrival. I looked out the living-room window, and that little black Mustang was pulling up to the front door just in time for Annie to run up the steps and into ther father’s outstretched arms. I stood there in tearful amazement, watching the two of them in silent embrace that truly said it all: “I love you. I forgive you. I’m here for you.”

 Our daughter graduated with her class on May 9, 2000, and gave birth to our first grandchild, an eight-and-a-half pound boy, on July 12. Within minutes after he was born, she handed him to her daddy, who extened his arms for him. As we caressed him we knew, without d dought, that sometimes our greatest blessings come through circumstances we never dreamed we’d experience. But it’s up to us to love unconditionally and to be there with outstretched arms.

 -From ‘Chicken Soup for the Father & Daughters Soul’p30~31