A Love Like His

I remember one Christmas when I was a boy, I had received lots of toys and was so happy—until I went over to my friend’s house. He had a toy I’d never seen before. It was a little battery-operated plastic skin diver with miniature flippers that kicked. I thought it was the coolest toy ever made. Suddenly, all of my new toys were meaningless. I wanted what he had.

There are two kinds of jealousy. The first is the kind I felt as a boy that Christmas. Secretly—or maybe not so secretly—we wish we had what someone else has. Isn’t it amazing how we can be completely content with what we have until we see someone who has just a little more?

Then there is the second kind of jealousy. We find an example of it in the Old Testament story of two women who both claimed to be the mother of the same baby. When they consulted Solomon, who was known for his wisdom, he suggested that the child be divided in two with a sword. So the child’s mother spoke up and said, “O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him!” (1 Kings 3:26). The other woman, however, said, “Let him be neither mine nor yours, but divide him” (verse 26). Solomon knew the true mother would put her baby’s welfare even above her own concerns.

This second kind of jealousy is jealousy at its extreme. More than selfishness, it actually desires evil for someone else. The Bible says, “For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there” (James 3:16).

God’s love is not jealous. May God help us to have love like His.