That moment when...all you see is Love

Yesterday I drove Buck and Betty to Jacksonville's Mayo Clinic. (Yes.. They are my Dads Mom and Dad and Ive always called them by their names. Rumor has it.... when I was born they were "too young" to be called Granny and Papa.) This trip was unlike any other one. Much different than our visits lately. Let me share what I experienced. I hope when you are available to those around you...you too...will find something special there...In that moment...... 



I look over at his frail body. Hunched over... The spine has now taken a turn. The body of what once stood a man. Strong, sturdy, planted firm on the ground as he stood.... Has slowly dwindled to an aging body....weak knees that can barely hold himself up. I see the love of his life cut up his food because the dexterity in his hands are slowly following his legs. Much like infancy this old body seems to be returning back to the involuntary, uncontrolled movements. These are the things I can see. It's a mystery of what's inside the heart and mind.  As  I look it breaks my heart of clinging to the memories of how he used to stand. I easily could make tears. Lots of them and then I change my thinking.... It's amazing at the emotions from one perspective  to the next.

So as I stare at the man  inside a shell of what looks like torture ....there... I see Jesus. I see his love. The love of his life. His help meet. His waitress. His barber. His dresser. His care taker. His pharmacy. His encourager. His reminder of reasons why to grow stronger.  His very reason of now living. I see love. The love I'm convinced most people never experience in a lifetime because they never have to truly depend on it. I see patience. I see kindness. I see unselfishness. I see servant.  I see weary. I see exhaustion yet plenty of energy. 

I found it amazing at what most of us see as inconvenience, brokenhearted, lack of hope... may be exactly what they have been longing for their whole lives. As we too are in the middle of growing ours..... What a blessing to watch and share with the experience. An experience that shows me exactly who I want to be. I want to love like that. A selfless love with no conditions. 

What a blessing I experienced as I took the day to be with them. It was different. Different than dropping in for a visit. It was a slow pace. Never in a hurry. I watched others give a simple smile. A nod. Acknowledgement  much like most do with babies. There is something sweet. Something special about the life it represents. Too bad they haven't seen it through my eyes. I see it as a gift. A gift to celebrate, honor and give thanks for. It is a legacy that has been left for me. That was passed down by my amazing parents and I pray I am living the same. 

So take the time. To be available. It may just be the perfect day that totally changes your perspective on what seems to be failing. Failing to thrive. Failing to live and enjoy. That's not it. Not it at all. Its simply the greatest of these.......It is Love. 

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gang or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge and if I has such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing. 

Love is patient. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoiced whenever the truth wins out. Love NEVER gives up, NEVER loses faith. Is ALWAYS hopeful and ENDURES through EVERY circumstance. 

Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge become useless. But LOVE will last FOREVER!

Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture. But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. 

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

Three things will last FOREVER......

Faith Hope and Love

The greatest of these is Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13