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
Meditation:
Love is an Absolute
An absolute? Scripture tells us: Love endures through every circumstance; Love never dies. So, yes, it’s an absolute. 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. I also don’t believe that there are differing shades of love. I’ve never seen a movie where the protagonist might say, “My darling, my love for you is at 47% and I hope you feel the same”. Although that does sound a bit silly, it has no power.
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 basic training in Missouri. We became closer friends during our Korean experience, and that friendship has only deepened over the years. Because of life experiences, he is nearly deaf, and because he is not tech savvy and does not own a computer, we neither talk on the phone nor use electronics. Yet those times when we do get together, it’s like we are just finishing a sentence that we started a moment before that in reality was two years ago. Do I love my friend? Darn right I do. One of my novels has a heroic, colorful characters that I modeled after my friend; crazy 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 separating you? How do you love members of your family when they marry, move to a distant state and raise a family? You just do! Love is love is love, etc.
I have four children, seven grandkids, nine great-grandkids (and counting) and I could probably write an essay about each one of them based on: She/He is a friend, a kid, a grandkid, a great; beautiful as springtime in the mountains. He is as unpredictable as Indiana weather. Talented far beyond anything that she would admit to. He is often lost in his own thoughts, her own creativity, mysterious and complex. She has little time to waste on the silliness of games and songs. Yet, each one is a completed masterpiece of God’s creativity on one hand, and, on the other, a blank canvas, unblemished, waiting to be created. How do you love from afar? Just like that.
Each of us could make those same kind of statements, for what I’ve described here is love in the shades of character traits, and those endearing qualities that touch our heartstrings and play out joy in our lives. But it is something else; It‘s God’s grace. Pay attention, stay engaged. He’s not done! Amen.
— Stan
Closing Prayer:
Father, we come to You, confessing that we often have a heart that is filled with whining and complaining instead of gratitude. Please forgive us. Help us learn to see Your handy work in the loved ones that fill our lives. We trust you even when we don’t understand our circumstances or Your movement within them. Instead, we choose to praise You, Lord, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
