Yesterday one of my family members was admitted to the hospital. Ever since then I have been keenly aware of human mortality. Asking questions of myself like "What would you do today if it was your last day?" If today were my last day I would want to be with my family and friends because there is nothing more important in life than people. I would just want to have dinner and spend time talking. Finishing out the night with a bonfire in the backyard.
It would be nice if my mortality was the only one I had to think about. Unfortunately it isn't. Last night as I sat in the living room alone I found myself thinking about what it would be like to lose an immediate family member. I pictured each member of my family on a steel metal table, cold, stiff, dead. Then I thought about what it would feel like if in that moment they had ceased to be apart of this world. I concluded pretty much the same thing for each of them. I would weep over them until I could no longer produce tears. Until everything I had within me was out, and I had nothing more I could give.
As I sat in the quiet living room last night thinking of these things I was reminded of our greater purpose. To live loving everyone around us without reserve, because Christ first loved us. I am encouraged knowing that God's plans are greater than my own. Even when they don't seem to be going in a good direction, God is always faithful and he "works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)
God’s Love and Ours
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved usand sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. - 1 John 4:7-21
Matthew 22:35-40
35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
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