There is a very tender and moving scene in the play, Fiddler On The Roof. Tevyev and his wife Golda are being forced to move from their home in Russia. One day Tevyev comes into the house and asks his wife, “Golda, do you love me?”
“Do I what?”
“Do you love me?”
Golda looks at him and then responds: “Do I love you? With our daughters getting married and this trouble in the town, you’re upset, you’re worn out, go inside, go lie down, maybe it’s indigestion.”
Tevyev interrupts and asks the question again, “Golda, do you love me?”
Golda sighs as she looked at him and says, “Do I love you? For 25 years I’ve washed your clothes, cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked the cows. After 25 years, why talk of love right now?”
Tevyev answers by saying, “Golda, the first time I met you was on our wedding day. I was scared, I was shy, I was nervous.”
“So was I,” said Golda.
“But my father and my mother said we’d learn to love each other, and now I’m asking, “Golda, do you love me?”
“Do I love him?” Golda sighs. “For 25 years I’ve lived with him, fought with him, 25 years my bed is his! If that’s not love, what is?”
“Then you love me?” Tevyev asks.
“I suppose I do!” she says.
“And I suppose I love you too!” he says. “It doesn’t change a thing, but after 25 years it’s nice to know.”
Some years ago I was in Denver with a group of teenagers from Chicago at a conference. The speaker had given talks to thousands of teenagers in high schools nationwide for many years. He always had the teenagers write down for him the question they most wanted to ask their parents but never did. No names of the students were ever written down or given.
Over all the years, the question most teens wanted to ask their parents was: “Mom, Dad, do you love me?” The second most-asked question the teens wanted to ask their parents: “Mom, Dad, did you really want to have me?”
This is a question we need to ask and to have answered with our family and with our Lord. The Risen Jesus asked Peter three times, “Peter, do you love me?”
What question down deep do YOUR children and YOUR grandchildren most want to ask YOU? Why don’t YOU ask them?
DEAR JESUS, MAY YOUR LOVE BE MY COMPANION IN THE WAR AGAINST MY EGO AND MY PRIDE!
