I’ve already considered how WORD-weary our souls may feel in this season. So maybe we can simply start with love:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13: 1-8). 

And these are literally the ONLY words I remember spoken the day of my own wedding so many years ago. But can we cement these words in our hearts today, meditate on them, let them take FREEDOM while tangerine oil makes rivers through dry sand? 

I mean, we already know the heart of this world is in some degree broken. And it is: fractured by sin and shards. But what love is forever? Making promises it keeps and believing in all things seemingly impossible. Love is forgiveness, a new start, a blank space where there were only lists of wrongs. 

As a parent who looks back with a fresh understanding, I know now that love must include mistakes as well. I’ve lived too long now to accept the lie that parenting perfection exists. It doesn’t. When we read 1 Corinthians though, we’re reminded that although perfect life doesn’t exist—perfect love does. 

Does Not Fail

I believe in the strength of God to carry us through the whole mess of life. Today if every leaf has fallen and every road is blocked…maybe there is a way through. Notice today how God’s love does perfect your day. Even in hardship, there is hope. 

Consider Ruth. Her life story resonates in love lost and found. More than a romance, though, we see exactly what love does when we find a home in the embrace of God. 

I think Paul Tripp says it best, “God regularly takes his children places they never would have planned to go in order to produce in and through them things they never could have produced on their own.” Everyday Gospel, Christmas Devotional. Crossways, 2024. 

Your story and mine are the same: “it is the story of God’s unshakable, unstoppable love for His children.” Paul Tripp, Everyday Gospel. 

Maybe we are learning what it is to love beyond our scope of understanding. Farther than our strength, God appears to want to persevere us, strengthen us. 

Strength

Even steel has what’s called a ductility strength. A strong steel is measured by the force in which you can push and pull, twist and tork it. The strongest steel, even, can be deformed without fracturing. Gods tangible promise that “love never fails.” 

But I think it’s like Walt Whitman said too:

“We were together. I forget the rest.”

I heard a Pastor say lately that our perspective, today actually, in all of its seemingly importance is just a small dot on the timeline of forever. God’s forever. May we all forge our freedom and remember to LOVE one another in the best of times! Today! 

Is there a specific thing God says about this that you struggle with? I admit, I’ve learned to let go of record of wrongs. Still learning, in fact. But let’s think about LOVE today.