WATCHWORD:
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled. 1 Corinthians 13:8-1
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 1 John 4:16
Meditation:
Love Never Dies
I hope you have discovered over the course of your life, that our true love relationships have not changed. Maybe you observe that absence makes the heart grow fonder, in many cases. I can’t disagree with that, but, then, I also believe that love is an absolute.
An absolute? Well, yes. I’m one of those romantics who believes that love never dies. Even death does not diminish it. Nor does it dim because of conflict, arguments and disagreements. I don’t believe there are differing shades love. The Greeks can disagree, but I’ve never seen a movie where the protagonist might say, I have 47% love for you and I hope you feel the same. Although that does sound a bit silly, and funny, or sad.
I do think there are gradients to a friendship. Some friendships are deeper, more longer-lasting, and never diminish even in the face of absence.
I have an old friend that resides in Wisconsin and Wyoming. I was 18 and he was 20 when we met during Army basic training in Missouri. We became closer friends during our Korean war tour of duty, and that friendship has only deepened over the years. Because of life experiences, he became a world-renowned big game hunter, and because of that he is nearly deaf. Talking on the phone is nearly impossible and because he is not tech savvy and does not own a computer, tecks and e-mails are one way. Snail-mail is his only way of reponding. Yet those times when we do get together, it’s like we are just finishing a sentence that we started a moment before when in reality was two years ago. Do I love my friend? Darn right I do. I just finished a novel and one of the heroic, colorful figures is modeled after my friend, mustache and all.
God gifts us with friendship and love, and God’s gifts are always good, often for purposes that only He knows. How do you love from afar? How do you hold that one that you hold dear close when there’s a time and distance wall separating you?
I have adult children, grandkids, great grandkids, and friends, each of which I could describe the nature of the relationship, their character, shot through with love from beginning to end. Many are time and distance away. That makes it hard, but doesn’t change a thing. Love is love is love, etc.
I could write an essay about each one of them, like this: She is a friend, a kid, a grandkid, beautiful as spring time in the mountains, unpredictable as Indiana weather, and talented far beyond anything that she would admit to. Often lost in her own thoughts, her own creativity, mysterious and complex. She has little time to waste on the silliness of games and songs. Yet, she is a developing masterpiece of God’s creativity on one hand, and, on the other, a blank canvas, waiting to be created. How do you not love that? And there are ten or more just like that.
We live on the faith that God is love and that we are His children, therefore we are loved. Rest on that truth, my friends.
Praying 1 Philippians 9-11:
Heavenly Father, I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that we will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. We want to understand what really matters so that we may live pure and blameless lives until Christ’s return. May we always be filled with the fruit of your salvation. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
