Again, for this week I will be using selections from "The Strength of Love" in which M.L. King focuses on this parable: "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him."
And there is the deep longing for the bread of love. Everybody wishes to love and to be loved. He who feels that he is not loved feels that he does not count. Much had happened in the modern world to make men feel that they do not belong. Living in a world which has become oppressively impersonal, many of us have come to feel that we are little more than numbers.
I haven't given much thought to the feeling of being unloved being linked to being not counted. Duh! What really touches me here is to be reminded that the position of people of color and people in the GLBT community so often carry with them a history of being not counted and with that, as one would expect, a feeling of being unloved or even unlovable. This bread of love is the what is meant to sustain the community of God's people in a world that chooses not to provide the love and care that is necessary to nurture the well-being of all. King's words are also important to hear next to the well-known reality that infants who are not held and cuddled and not treated as though they are precious will not grow up with the kind of confidence that is a part of those who are. We long for that bread...that touch...that love felt or spoken...that food that feeds the spirit for life.
Connection: Be the bread of love for someone today...and take note when you are being fed!
Lord of Love, before we open our eyes and begin this new day you are already the one who embraces us and promises to be with us in and through all things. We are a beloved people fed by your loving kindness. Thanks be to you, O God. Amen.
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