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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 mine 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 telephone call
from the San Francisco Police Department. Their son had died after
falling from a building, there 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 people. They find it easy to
love those who may be attractive or are fun to have around, but tend to
not like people who inconvenience them or make them feel uncomfortable.
They would rather stay away from people who aren't as healthy,
beautiful, or smart as they are.

Thankfully, there's Someone who won't treat us that way, Someone who
loves us with an unconditional love and who welcomes us into His forever
family, regardless of how many wounds we may have from life's battles,
and we are commanded to follow His example. The someone is Jesus