The words breezed by me countless times throughout my 36 years, I’m certain.
A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” –John 13:34
All these times, I’ve registered recognition but not nothing more: Oh, yes. The love commandment. I know that one.
Until this day.
God’s been persistent in whispering clues about how He loves. He knows I need to get this before I get anything else.
I’ve been alert, awaiting the whispers. So, on this day, when I read of Jesus speaking about love…
I pause. And soak in it.
As I have loved you. How does God love?
He directs me back to Psalm 145:
The Lord is gracious and kind, slow to anger and rich in mercy.
The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made. (Ps 145:8-9, emphasis added)
It’s right there in print…the way He loves. Not a distant taskmaster. Not a harsh judge.
Here, I see evidence of a gentle love.
A compassionate God? Compassion, it means “to suffer with.” I am child to an Abba who loves like that.
And there’s more. I can’t help but pause in Galatians too:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. –Galatians 5:22-23
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples…
My past carelessness, my arrogance, my short attention span has blinded me to ever pondering those words.
With grace, with kindness, with mercy…. With patience, compassion, joy, faithfulness and more–this is how I am loved!
With grace, with kindness, with mercy…. With patience, compassion, joy, faithfulness and more–this is how I can love!
In excitement, I gather my family and share it with them.
Exhort the kids to write it down.
So we can post it inside our front door–to see every time we pass by and before we leave to go out into the world.
So we remember who we are.
This is how God loves.
This is how others will know we are His disciples.
Lord, help me to love like you do!
What have you seen with new eyes?
What is God speaking to your heart today?
Mandy, I love being a child of Abba “who loves like that”, too. Thank you for the precious reminder to stop and soak it in. And make every attempt to love like God loves us. Loved this!
Thank you, Missy. Your comment shows that you are:)
I love this! It is such a wonderful reminder of who He is and how we should be!
Lord, help me to love this that too!
Thanks, Vicki! I need these reminders often.
Beautiful words, Mandy. If only we could love like He loves. I try very hard to do so, then my human-ness gets into me and comes out of me and then it becomes hard. But by leaning into the WORD, His words can start becoming my everyday thoughts.
Amen, Tammy. Thank you for sharing that!
Mandy, it is so easy to ignore how truly loving He is. Thanks for the beautiful reminder.
Thank you, Melanie. I tend to miss His everyday reminders because I am too busy doing other things–my list of things for the day. It’s so easy to lose sight of what truly matters.