a word to brothers and to love

I look up to and respect the Brother like very few other men, even people. In fact, I've said to Princess S before that I will marry the guy who I respect more than my brother; that I will know this hypothetical guy is a keeper if I turn to him ultimately for help instead of my brother.

Part of the reason for my admiration is because of his love for Jesus. He's been a great witness to me and the Sister, always guiding, correcting, rebuking and looking after us. Not only this, he's a great example in his active service of others - doing thoughtful little servant-hearted things that people quite often take for granted. Jesus has completely shaped and changed his life, which is evident from the way he challenges himself and his thinking when it's not in line with the Bible's teachings.

Sure, he's got his faults. I used to tune him a when we were younger about him not listening to other people's sides of things, and not really being gracious in response to errors - he tends to be quite hard.core-. God is changing him, however, and he is also eager to grow.

You can imagine then, how shattering it would be if one of his beloved sisters were to decide to stop being a Christian. I hadn't really thought of the effect on him when I sent out an email with a link to my post entitled 24 April 2011: The night I decided not to be a Christian anymore - Part 1.

He received the email, but had to dash off without reading my post. What I will never forget, though, are his final words to me before he walked out of the door: "Grace, whatever it is you've decided; remember, I still love you."

Even though the post wasn't what he thought it would be, I was completely overwhelmed by his words of love. And then I realized this was because I'd just experienced first hand how God treats human beings and sin: to hate what we do as sinners, but to love who we are as human beings.