Dedicated to WilsonI fell in love for the first time when I was 12 years old. He was the first person I really, truly loved. People around me thought I was crazy, they couldn't understand how I could love someone like him. To me, he was so special, so caring, just so very wonderful.
Our relationship started like any other. At first, there was such a bond between us, the desire to get to know one another better. I couldn't get enough of talking to him, learning more about him and just being with him. We used to have such deep, meaningful conversations. I discovered that I could tell him just about anything under the sun. He knew so much about everything. I also couldn't stop talking about him to anybody that would listen. Usually people just listened amusedly about what I had to say about this great guy that I had found. Sometimes they even brushed me off distractedly, but that didn't stop me from telling people about this wonderful relationship of mine.
Surely, there were times when we disagreed, and I pouted and sulked when I didn't get my own way. Nevertheless, he was gentle with me, coaxing me until I saw where my mistakes lay. Then I would cry penitent tears, pleading with him to forgive me. He never held grudges , but always held out his arms to me, taking me back, enfolding me in his embrace. How could you not love someone like that?
However, as I grew older, I found that I had less and less time to spend with him. My days were taken up with new friends, new hobbies, new career, the hectic schedule of life. My conversations with him waned, time spent with him grew less and we rarely spoke of the things that were once so dear to us. He did make an effort to talk to me, but in vain, as I curtly pushed him aside, making excuses that I was too busy with this, that, or the other. Gradually, he began to leave me in my own world, too much of a gentleman to impose himself on me.
Nevertheless, as time went by, I found that I missed the conversations that we had. I missed having him there beside me. I missed asking his opinion on decisions that I had to make. I missed knowing that he would be there to pick me up if I fall. Worse still, I found that my world began to crumble. People who I thought were my friends began showing their true colours. They began saying nasty things behind my back. All the money I had in the world did not buy me true happiness, neither did it bring me genuine friends. I was like a leaf being blown in the wind, swaying this way and that, with no direction, no purpose in my life. I was filled with guilt, shame, and regret.
It was then that I remembered that I still had one true friend, one who would never leave me nor forsake me. Even if my world were to fall apart, he would still be there. In my anguish, I cried out to him to save me, like he did so very long ago. I thought that he would never respond to me, considering the way I had treated him all these years. But still he came to me, gentle and forgiving, as always. Slowly, I began to let down my wall of defences that I had built for so long until it was completely broken, until
I was completely broken. Only then could he begin to heal my wounded heart.
Today, I have rekindled my relationship with him, and nothing burns brighter than my love for him. To think that he could have abandoned me and turned away. And yet he still forgave me and accepted me back. Best of all, he gave his life for me. He suffered a cruel cross so that I would be pure and blameless before God. He paid the price for my sins so that I can enter heaven some day. His body was broken and his blood was shed in order that I may live forever with him, Jesus Christ.
My Jesus I love Thee, I know Thou art mineFor Thee all the follies of sin I resign;My gracious Redeemer, my Saviour art ThouIf ever I loved Thee, my Jesus 'tis now.(William R. Featherston, 1846-1873)
