“Love doesn’t fly off the handle or keep score of the sins of others. It doesn’t revel when others grovel… Love puts up with anything and trusts God always. It looks for the best, never looks back, keeps going to the end.” 1Cor.13:6-7 (The Message)
Lord Jesus, another week, another opportunity to prove the wonders of your love—first to ourselves, then to others. The verses we just read are vertical before they are horizontal. You are the only perfect and persistent lover.
Thank you for never “flying off the handle” at us. We’re the ones with irritable heart-syndrome, not you. And far from keeping a score of our sins, you canceled all of them and filled the void with the gift of your perfect righteousness. You don’t “revel when we grovel”—because no one has ever gotten lower than you. Because you humbled yourself, we will never be humiliated. You took our shame and gave us your grace.
You “put up” with us, not with the rolling of your eyes and the shrugging of your shoulders, but with an empathy and compassion we can barely understand. You “look for the best” in us because you actually see it, and you’re never shocked by our worst.
You never “look back” because you’ve redeemed our past. You will keep loving us “to the end” because you are the Author and Perfecter of our faith—the Alpha and Omega of us becoming like you one Day. Jesus… thank you. May this be a week of us loving others… even a little more… like you love us so perfectly. So Very Amen.