1st John 3.18 KJV “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
Every day I wear socks. I open my sock drawer and there they are! It’s magic. I never run out. There’s always enough. Like Elisha and the widow’s oil (2nd Kings 4.1-7) or Jesus and the loaves and fishes (Matthew 15.32-38), they just keep multiplying. The socks are always there… clean, folded, in a variety of colors, and ready to wear.
Actually, I know how this trick works. It’s not really magic, but it is miraculous. It’s the miracle of love. Love puts clean socks in my drawer when I’m not looking so they appear when I need them. Somebody loves me. That’s the miracle. Love picks up, washes, dries, folds, and puts away my socks every day… it’s a miracle! Someone chooses not to “love in word, neither in tongue.” Instead, she loves “in deed and in truth,” just like the Bible says. I am Elisha’s widow. I am one of five thousand whom Jesus fed. I am my wife’s clean sock recipient. I am the beneficiary of the miracle of love.
It’s hard for me to imagine what possesses a woman to love at that depth and with such consistency. Could it have be Jesus in her?
The answer is yes, but that was then.
Eight years ago, my dear wife was in a bed on the oncology floor receiving chemotherapy for acute myloid leukemia. She could no longer do my socks, so other angels picked up the task. Our older children moved into my home to care for the younger ones, allowing me to spend those many days in the hospital with Adonica. Clean socks still showed up each morning in my sock drawer. Our grown kids did my laundry, even though they were busy with their own active lives, children, and jobs.
It's still hard for me to comprehend this type of love. What possessed my family to love like this? Was it Jesus in them?
The answer is yes, but that was then.
Today I wash, fold, and put away my own socks. I miss the magical days when clean socks appeared in my drawer without my help. I miss the woman who was living evidence of the presence of Jesus. Now I must love others “in deed and in truth,” just like I have been loved.
There are plenty of people with dirty socks who could benefit from the miracle of Jesus in me.
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1 comment:
Ironically, what struck me in this chapter was the sentence immediately preceeding your verse.
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?"
-------1 John, ch 3, vs 16-17.
This theme has been continually on my heart over the last several months. I have been spending my Thursday nights down at Union Gospel Mission and have learned so much even in the last few weeks. One of the needs down at the mission, in addition to the obvious food and clothing needs is the need for bibles. The folks at the mission have been flat out of them for weeks.
I called Sunset this week and asked if they had any to spare. Sure enough, the church had recently made the decision to go with all hard back bibles and we suddenly had a large stock of unused paperbacks. The church was more than happy to donate these bibles to the mission.
So today, (Thanksgiving Day) many of the poor and homeless will not only be given a meal and blankets/clothes, etc, they will also be given the word of God, thanks to the fact that we belong to a church which takes this commandment seriously.
Dave, thanks for talking yesterday and thanks for posting on your Thanksgiving Day. Hope you have a wonderful day with your family and will see you Friday morning.
-----CEDAR MILL
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