Monday, July 8, 2002
Monday, July 8, 2002
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and
he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.
We are certainly not saying that romantic love is essential to comfort. That dear lady could
have given and received love long before she met her future husband. There were her
neighbors and, perhaps, other family members. Certainly, there was God. One thing is certain.
Very few people crawl out of the valley by themselves. We need to give and receive the
awesome love giving to us by Jesus Christ.
(John 14.15-16
NRSV)
We could easily make a case that where there is no love, there is no comfort. Leslie
Weatherhead once told of a woman who married late in life. She confessed to him that for
many years she had been bitter, and sarcastic, and cynical about life. She had said many
bitter things about her neighbors, often envying them their good fortune...being married, and
having homes of their own, while she felt doomed to a life of loneliness. She had stopped
praying years before, and even blamed God for the poor deal she felt she had gotten in life.
Then, rather late, love came into her life. A rather youngish widower asked her to marry him.
She became radiant, a radically different person altogether. She became filled with love and
laughter. Then she regretted those years of despondency and bitterness. She told Dr.
Weatherhead, "If only I had known earlier how life was going to turn out..."
Dear Jesus, continue to fill me with your love, as I humbly share it. Amen.
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