Among Friends

[gloriajean]

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
-- Author Unknown


A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after
having fought in Vietnam. He called his parents from San Francisco.
"Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've a favor to ask. I have a
friend I'd like to bring home with me."

"Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him."

"There's something you should know the son continued, he was hurt
pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mind and lost an
arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live
with us."

"I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to
live."

"No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us."

"Son," said the father, "you don't know what you're asking. Someone
with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own
lives to live, and we can't let something like this interfere with our
lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy.
He'll find a way to live on his own."

At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing
more from him. A few days later, however, they received a call from
the San Francisco police. Their son had died after falling from a
building, they were told. The police believed it was suicide. The
grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the
city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him,
but to their horror they also discovered something they didn't know,
their son had only one arm and one leg.

The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love
those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we don't like
people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. We would
rather stay away from people who aren't as healthy, beautiful, or
smart as we are. Thankfully, there's someone who won't treat us that
way. Someone who loves us with an unconditional love that welcomes us
into the forever family, regardless of how messed up we are.

Tonight, before you tuck yourself in for the night, say a little
prayer that God will give you the strength you need to accept people
as they are, and to help us all be more understanding of those who are
different from us!!

[cimeranrose]

Thank you for the post gloriajean. You are so right, He does have unconditional love for us and He does want us to be forever families.

You have a good heart

[Greeneyedlady21]

@gloriajean what a beautiful post, so sad too.

I've never felt unconditional love from my family, and that has brought me lots of pain in life. Slowly I have built myself up and met some other people who have done that for me, but it's just not the same.

I'm more at peace with it and stronger about it and know that I'm not "crazy"-that it's true. It's just painful all the same. I think the most important thing for anyone is to know that they are loved unconditionally.

Animals give true unconditional love, sadly it seems so difficult for so many humans to do that.

[golding76]

gloriajean,

Your post is the most moving statement on love that I've read in a very long time.

Thank you for posting it and waking some of us up to what is humane and compassionate behavior.  Sometimes we slip.  This story really drove the point home.

Thank you.

[alicedee]

Wait......the parents were not given the opportunity to show unconditional love to their son....he was not honest with them.  They may very well have welcomed hm home and taken care of him lovingly...if he had been upfront and said what happened to him.  Who among us would take in a total stranger with those debilitating needs?  

This story does not at all reflect to me that the parents would not be accepting of their son ...they were not given a chance.  

[jaxs mom]

You guys actually liked that? Of course we can't have a positive example of unconditional love, instead we have to get the depressing guilt trip version. It would have been too simple to just have the parents say, yes of course bring him home and then find out it was their son. Same lesson in the end. 

[blackhole99]

@alicedeeI know what you mean, but maybe this guy knew his parents would not be up to the task and maybe he wasn't either. Hence, the horrific outcome.

[meallen616]

gloriajean,

For posting this story,

[RetRN]

Very thought provoking, I don't blame anyone for the tragic outcome.

So many people want to be with perfect people, not everyone can be good looking, smart, always fun to be with, and so on.  Acceptance of flaws can bring some wonderful people into our lives.

[jaxs mom]

You guys do realize that this is just some anonymous writing. It's not a news story.