An old saying says something like ‘Well, when I was younger, we walked to school both ways up hill and in the snow every day of the year.’ The tale can continue to describe the struggle that the generation before us had. It was hard and harder and more challenging than the generation has it today. I imagine my sons and grandchildren sitting around a table or fire one day describing the days of being locked in their homes with their parents, no friends and trying to do school online. I imagine them comparing the easy lives their children are living to the difficulty they lived with while they were kids. They will describe how things changed. They will talk about how things were never the same again. They will tell their children how good life was once upon a time!
I imagine these times have changed us. I imagine these times have made us better. I imagine these times have shaped us. I imagine our relationships have changed. I know our family has changed. We know each other better. We understand each other and our emotional state better. We recognize triggers in each other more quickly. We also know what makes the other person happy or sad or angry or furious. We know each other and our coping mechanisms. We have learned many things.
The picture is not all perfect. We have also had to learn how to speak to each other. Our patience and grace for each other has grown. After these past three months the love and grace God constantly displays to us has become new for me. I am challenged to be more loving and more thoughtful and more gracious than I was when all this lock in started.
‘If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.’
We have been challenged to make our actions loving. We have been challenged to treat each other with patience, kindness, and grace. This scripture says we cannot just talk about love our actions need to show it. We have been challenged to treat each other with all love.
‘They will know we are his disciples by our love for one another.’
We will start engaging with people more. People whose patience is thin. People who are tired of being inside. People who are stressed out. Friends exemplify love. Be more gracious. Be more giving. Be more kind. Be more patient. Be more loving. Let’s glorify God and let the world know we love Christ by our we love one another!