Love has a price

The last three weeks have been difficult - in spite of the joy of being accredited as a local preacher.  Amidst the happiness, three people I have known and cared about have passed away - two of them quite suddenly and unexpected.  Love has a price - we love, accepting that any parting that comes will have a certain amount of pain attached to it.

1 Corinthians 13 is all about the importance of love - no matter what we do, no matter what we achieve, if we do not love, it all counts for nothing.  In loving others we leave ourselves open and vulnerable.  Vulnerable to the pain of disagreement, vulnerable to the pain of bereavement and sometimes it's not until we are without the person we regarded as a friend, we realise just how much that friendship meant to us.

Love is the foundation on which the Kingdom of God is built, without it, the Kingdom would be overwhelmed with the hatred and self-interest that threatens our world.  Jesus loved - if we read the story of Jesus and Lazarus, we read that when Jesus heard that Lazarus had died, that he wept.

When we accept Kingdom values as Christians, love for others is an intrinsic part of our discipleship. We cannot escape it, we cannot ignore it.  Our lives become intertwined and our lives are enriched by love shared with other people, and when love hurts, we must reflect on the great truth that love represents the very nature of God himself.

I give thanks for my friends whose passing I now mourn and I give thanks for the love shown to me by others.  I give thanks for friends who see beyond my faults and failings and love me unconditionally. We are reminded of the perfect love of God summed up so perfectly in Charles Wesley's wonderful hymn:

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.

and the last verse....

Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

God bless you!