Roller Coaster of Memories and Love...

This past four days has been a roller coaster of memories and love, beginning with a memorial service honoring a family member, who is now with the Lord, and with her late husband, after suffering a stroke. The service included many scriptures which she had selected to be read and each of her Grand-children shared in their reading.

This was followed by our time spent with another family member, whose husband is now with the Lord due to cancer. She lost him after fifty-five years of marriage and is in the early stages of difficult adjustments living without him at her side.

The next day, my wife and I shared time with my Grand-daughter, who is ministering to many orphaned boys in the Mexico Mission Field with BACK2BACK Ministries. She shared with a group of supporters, who had gathered at her parents home for a Thankyou Luncheon of Mexican food, which she had prepared herself for her guests. Her ministry is one of loving support and outreach to each of these boys who are in such dire need to be loved!

Today, August 19th, during my devotions, I read some scriptures, used by Nicky Gumbel while discussing the characteristics of love, in his devotion about embracing a life of love, quoting from I Cor. 13. Of all the scriptures, which stand out in my memory, this particular chapter stands out as though it was just yesterday, even though I read it from the pulpit of our church some fifty or so years ago.

1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and If I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 
4. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9. For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10. but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The verse that really jumps off the page for me is 12: For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

I think that I read that chapter in the early 1960's, during our church service with so many friends, choir members, and family, many of whom are now with the Lord...in the 'face to face' phase of their eternal lives...celebrating and experiencing what we are still anticipating!

Nicky sums it up so well, when he says 'God is good and he loves you. This pretty much sums up the message of the entire Bible. It is his love that is the source of our love: 'we love because he first loved us' (1 John 4:19)'. Those of you who are reading this are still living the 'now' portion of verse 12 above. As such, we are sharing and building relationships and experiences, which prepare us for the 'then' portion of our journey to eternity with our Lord God. 

Each one of us could name off a huge list of wonderful people who have become part of our life experience and planted their God-given seeds in our life's experience.  It's all part of God's plan for us...ENJOY! LOVE AND BE LOVED!