Is that love?

John 13:34-35 “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other.  Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

Love is a word that is said, used, taken for granted, taken out of context, misunderstood, misrepresented, abandoned, abused, I could go on.  But Jesus had one intent for it; it wasn’t advice it wasn’t a recommendation nor was it meant to represent any of those terms, no it was a command. A simple command with directions: “Just as I have loved you, you should love each other”.

          The story I’m about to share with you is still very clear in my mind even though I was around seven years old at the time.  My sister and I lived with my Grandparents in Montgomery Alabama on  Hutchinson Street; it’s where I spent my first and second grade years. 

          There were two sisters that lived down the street from my Grandparents home, Ms. Marie and Ms. Sadie Mae Lewis.  They were very close friends with my Grandmother.  They were both very nice ladies but Ms. Sadie was the more outgoing of the two.  One Christmas Ms. Sadie came to our house and I remember she showed great interest in how Christmas went for my sister and me.  I remember her asking, “Is this what Santa brought you?  This is nice!  What is this?  OHHH now I know you are going to have fun with this!”  Everything Ms. Sadie said or asked me, I responded with a quick, “yep”. 
I remember this experience like it was yesterday.  A few years later Ms. Sadie passed.  As I got older, remembering my response to her kindness started to weigh on me. 

         The more I found peace in my heart; the more I learned about respect; the more my actions on that day began to make me “feel bad”.  Then when I learned about Christ’s intent for ‘LOVE’ my spirit was convicted and forever changed about how I treat others.

          The bible teaches us in 1 Corinthians 13:5 that love “…does not act improperly, is not selfish, is not provoked, and does not keep a record of wrongs.”  Then it goes on to say, 1 Corinthians 13:6-7 “Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

          I began to realize, that the gift of the Holy Spirit was working that scripture in my soul:  “…LOVE rejoices in truth…”, “…bears all things…” and “…LOVE does not act improperly…”  In truth, that woman was an angel that was teaching a young man at the age of seven how to be kind, how to show love and how to act properly. 

        The Holy Spirit allowed me to carry this memory, bear the ‘wrong’ found in my actions for this woman who was kind to me and allowed me this so that in time I would put it together.  Through my life’s experiences God knew that I would come back to His word.  And when I did He knew that I would relate and receive the lesson He had for me through Ms. Sadie Mae Lewis. 

       It’s time for God’s people to know ‘love’ for what it is and not as a term of cliché or term of endearment. Unlike Beta Max, Atari, black & white television, LOVE is never going out of style.  The way we use it and view it at times, we may take away from its true meaning but the value of it will remain long after us.

True love never fails!

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Peace and Blessings,
-Billy

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