Mark 12:30-31
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.
Recently our daughter told us she had seen a report of a couple who had been married 72 years. They were still so much in love that they held hands like a couple of newlyweds. They could not bear the thought of being apart for even short periods of time. The wife became ill and when she died her sweetheart husband told the children that he would be joining her very shortly. He died about fifteen hours later.
The great artist, Vincent Van Gogh once made this comment; “There is nothing more artistic than to love people.” If we were to paint an image of love it would be something going outward to others, rather than inward. It grieves me that we live in a time when love is measured by what satisfies us rather than how we give of ourselves to others.
On a very personal note, for the past several years I have had the blessing of serving my wife as she has increasingly lost the strength to do things for herself. Perhaps some would throw up their hands and refuse to do the menial tasks, but I have gained so much from this expression of love.
I find new meaning when I read in Ephesians 5 that the husband is to love the wife in the same way that Christ loved the church. Christ demonstrated love for us by dying for us. I want to die to myself for my wife as well as others I serve.
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil