Faith and Family / Sean Gallagher

The drama of self-giving love brings families into closer relationship with God

As I watched my 11-year-old son Colin be quite the ham in a humorous role in a recent production of Beauty and the Beast Jr. at his school, old memories washed over me.

When I was about his age, I played a royal child in a production of The King and I, with my sister, a high school senior at the time. She played Anna Leonowens, the female lead in the play. More than 40 years later, I can still remember all the words of the songs of that Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.

My mom made many sacrifices for me to be in that production. At the time, I was a paperboy for my hometown’s afternoon newspaper. Mom took over the route each day when I was at play practice.

My wife Cindy also had many great experiences in school theater productions when she was growing up.

And, like my mom, she made many sacrifices to help Colin and his fellow students have a good experience in their play while volunteering as an assistant director. She worked for weeks on making 1,001 behind-the-scenes arrangements for props and costumes, helping out at many practices and organizing support from other parents.

So, in that moment of seeing Colin on stage doing such a good job with all the other student actors, I was filled with gratitude. I gave tearful thanks for the lifetime of memories that the love of musical theater planted in my heart by my mom long ago has given me. I now have the chance to pass on that gift to Colin and his brothers, who all have had their turn on stage in school plays.

In the days since, I’ve also come to realize that, in moments like this, God gives us an awe-inspiring glimpse of his infinite love for us.

On this side of eternity, it’s impossible to get our heads totally around the reality that our heavenly Father knows and loves each one of us from the beginning to the end of our lives in the eternal now beyond history in which he exists.

But since he has created us in his image and likeness, we are given the chance to understand part of this mystery with the help of his ever-present grace.

This isn’t just an academic exercise, an attempt at doing mental gymnastics. When we take time to ponder how God knows and loves us, he makes such moments an occasion for drawing us into an ever-closer relationship with him.

Living in eternity, God expresses in one moment his love for us in all the moments of our life. I had something of an experience of that as I watched Colin on stage. Memories of my mom’s sacrificial love for me from some 40 years ago were joined with my knowledge in the present of the self-giving love of Cindy and so many other parents helping make Beauty and the Beast Jr. possible for all the students who took part in it.

Their sacrificial love, like God’s sacrificial love for us, will fill their hearts with beautiful memories that will hopefully not just last a lifetime, but will lead them closer to a relationship with God in the eternity of heaven.

That was made possible for all of us in the self-sacrificing love for us that Christ manifested to us in the drama of his suffering and death on Calvary.

As we draw closer to Holy Week, allow Christ to draw you closer to him. He will open the eyes of your heart to how he has shown you his self-giving love throughout the drama of your own lives and is inviting you to share it with others, especially your family. †