Nobody is Gross to Hug

        Is it gross to hug a gay person? 
     This question followed me around after my ladies' small group met one Wednesday evening last year. We were discussing how to love everyone with Christ's love. One girl mentioned that when she hugs her gay friends that she, "Does it even though it's gross." I was perplexed by these words, on and off, for an entire year.
     Is it gross to hug a gay person? 
     Is it gross to love anyone with an unclean lifestyle? 
     The more I thought about it, the more it didn't make sense. Maybe I was being naive, but the thought of hugging a gay person wasn't even remotely gross to me. For an entire year the question bothered me. The scenario kept resurfacing in my head. 
     Then, this morning, as the memory resurfaced for the one-hundredth time, it hit me. 
     It isn't gross to hug gay people, or any unclean person for that matter. I didn't have it wrong at all. I was right.
     You see, Christians lie to themselves about what loving other people with God's love is all about. Loving other people with conditions isn't how God intended us to use his love. 
     God doesn't say,"I love you, but...You're gay." God doesn't say,"I love you but...you're fat." God doesn't say,"I love you...but you're addicted to drugs." No. God says,"I love you unconditionally no matter what." In fact, he gives us a perfect example of this in Luke 5:12-13 where he heals the leper. "12 In one of the villages, Jesus met a man with an advanced case of leprosy. When the man saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground, begging to be healed. 'Lord,' he said, 'if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.' 13 Jesus reached out and touched him. 'I am willing,' he said. 'Be healed!' And instantly the leprosy disappeared."(NLT). What did Jesus do again? That's right. He touched the leper. The leper probably had been ridiculed and forgotten for years, but Jesus didn't care. My favorite part about this is that Jesus didn't stand from afar and heal the leper(As he very well could have.), instead he simply walked up to the leper. Jesus didn't say, "Hey, bro, I see you're sick, so I'll stay over here and heal you, okay?" No. He walked up to him and touched him.
          As Christians, if we're going to continue to live the life Christ intended us to live by loving others, then we'd better stop selfishly feigning his love. What I mean is that we can't hoard God's love for ourselves and then pretend that that's what God intended. We're not really giving anyone the love that Christ has given us if we find it "gross" to hug someone. Did Jesus touch the leper and think,"Ew! Gross!"? I'm 100% sure that he did not. Why am I so sure? Because Jesus wasn't even thinking about how gross the man's leprosy was, he was more focused on helping the man.
          If we can teach ourselves to hug people without thinking of it as "gross", then we're really getting somewhere. Because through our genuine love that Christ gave us, we'll prompt the people we give his love to to ask questions, and hopefully we'll be able to "heal" them like Jesus did, but  in a different way. Our "healing" would be more along the lines of answering questions, and, hopefully, leading those loved people to Christ. 
         So, once again: Is it gross to hug a gay person?
         If your answer is "Yes.", then you might want to take a step back to analyze your relationship with God.
         If your answer is "No.", then you're probably on the right track. Just remember that this isn't just about gays. You're answer should also be "No." to questions such as,"Is it gross to hug a homeless man?" or "Is it gross to hug a druggy?". 
        This, obviously, isn't just about hugs, this is about the human nature to judge. If we all could just take a step back and look at all the people who need love and love them, instead of ignoring them because they're "gross to hug", the world would truly be a better place.