Frankly, there is no reason. I just choose to love my husband every day. It is perhaps my way of imitating Almighty God, who loves me…for no reason. I am surely unworthy of His favor, but He wakes me up every morning, and fills my day with miracles of kindness and opportunity and friendship. For this grace, and many more, I have learned to love as I have been loved: having no conscious reason for doing so, but choosing to love my husband, my children, my community, my country—as freely as God loved me.
Love is a gift. We love without expecting anything in return. We just want the objects of our affection to be happy. They don’t have to gift us with chocolates, high grades or praise. They don’t even have to love us back. That, I believe, is love given freely—for no reason.
Today, my 11th year anniversary as a cancer survivor, I celebrate the love I have received from over a hundred benefactors, family and friends, who came to my aid at my time of need. They helped without expecting anything in return. They helped and showed their love—for no reason—except perhaps to follow the example of Jesus. Surely, I will never be able to pay them back. I rejoice in their favor all the more, for I am unworthy, but they gave of themselves that I may complete my treatments and live.
By God’s mercy, I survived more than a year of treatment—from August 30, 2004 to November 30, 2005—for Stage 4 breast cancer (it had spread to my bone and lymph nodes). The kids, then aged 9 and 5, are now in college (one in 5th year and one in 1st year). We have since traveled together as a family, seeing sights and even visiting relatives thousands of miles away. We have had our share of challenges, among them bouts with flu, dengue and diabetes (for the hubby), and the occasional vehicular accidents that shock us and remind us what life on earth is all about.
It has been 11 years, and we continue to pray together for perfect health and constant safety. We trust that God Almighty, who chooses to love our family, despite there being no justifiable reason to do so, will continue to have mercy on us, and grant us as much time as we need to learn how to love as He does—freely—without reason, expectation, or fanfare.
