Today the text from yesterday is being repeated because - as is often the case - there is more than enough material on which to reflect.
In our prayer for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on you behalf, and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit. (Colossians 1:3-8)
That word of hope...or should I continue saying that life of hope...is the story of God made flesh. It is the visibility of God in the form of humankind so that humanity would be able to see a picture of hope alive...hope full of hope. We go back to the story of Jesus to glimpse this faithful hopefulness that is often seen as this enduring love that goes all the way with us. We have all heard this word of truth and we say that we have seen it in the middle of the storytelling of the Christ...but also in glimpses of that hopefulness in the life of the saints who are the body of Christ living according to a love that can only spring from the faith that has been given to us by the Spirit of God. The gospel has come to us and we say that as part of the way the Spirit now nudges us to follow in the way of this good news for all. As that word of truth comes alive among us, the embodiment of God's love is not merely a theoretical concept. It is a love given to and for all. That broad stroke of love is not based on a reward...it is based on a truth that is already ours. Therefore, when we love, it is without condition and it is available to all. Love like this demands nothing at all. It is a gift that - like the love of Christ - is the power for life beyond our own power. Odd, isn't it, that so many people demand conditions of life before this love is given out?!?
Connection: When conditions come before love is extended to others, what good is the love? When love is extended outside of our conditional world - it is strange...odd...and the power to transform everyone. Today is an opportunity to live outside of our world and yet begin to be a part of the transformation of all things.
Come, Lord of Life, come and take us by the hand so that our love will bring life to a world afraid to trust what it cannot yet see. Amen.
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