4 August 2004

Once you start into this "Love" chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, we just have to see it through.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophecy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13:8-13)

I can hear the water of baptism being splashed and I feel its refreshing beads of water flying in my face to remind me that no other story and no other way of being in the world is the same as this water based freedom for life that come by way of the extravagant love of God. This is a love that is a gift to us so that it will be the gift we open up for the world...a gift that comes in the shape of each one of us so that it will be easier for others to hear and taste and feel its fullness. There are many things we experience within our lives that expand us and push us and take us into new pathways of life. But then, there is the love of God that is....forever...it never ends. No matter how well we seem to "get it," there is always more to get...we never see it all in place and set forever. The forever nature of the love of God is beyond our grasp and yet it keeps grabbing us and revealing itself to us anew every day. What is so odd and precious about this love is that I can never quite understand how it keep bringing new life...again and again...

Connection: How has the love of God grabbed you today...Surprised you today...turned your head today...showered you with grace that has been like a door open to new life?

Take us beyond our expectations and deliver us into the everlasting embrace of your gracious Reign, O God of Delightful Visions. We long for the promises you offer us. We long to be patient and yet to begin, already, to taste the feast that is to come. With your love you bring hope into our days and add a skip to our walk even when walking is even a dream. Thanks be to God. Amen.