Poetry Wednesday: Love

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Next Sunday, August 7th, will be our 7th wedding anniversary.  This was read at the ceremony.  Throughout my marriage, there have been many times when I have clung to these promises as though my life depended on it.  Because really... it does.  The Bible is our instruction book, our road map and our promises from God Himself that He will give us the very best of everything, if only we trust Him and follow His example.

Have you loved someone or experienced love from someone like this?  These words are special to me because of my wedding day, but it applies to other aspects of our lives too- friends and family, especially, but how you treat the grocery clerk or your boss, a co-worker, or even someone you don't seem to get along with sometimes.  It puts all of our relationships into perspective, if we let it.  Take a few moments to let the words sink into your heart.  This is what real love is and does.  And it will change you forever.

1 Corinthians 13 (New International Version)

¹ If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men or of angels, 

but do not have love, 

I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 

² If I have the gift of prophecy 

and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, 

and if I have a faith that can move mountains, 

but do not have love, I am nothing. 

³If I give all I possess to the poor 

and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, 

but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 ⁴ Love is patient, 

love is kind. 

It does not envy, 

it does not boast, 

it is not proud. 

⁵ It does not dishonor others, 

it is not self-seeking, 

it is not easily angered, 

it keeps no record of wrongs. 

⁶ Love does not delight in evil 

but rejoices with the truth. 

⁷ It always protects, 

always trusts, 

always hopes, 

always perseveres.

 ⁸ Love never fails. 

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; 

where there are tongues, they will be stilled; 

where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 

⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 

¹⁰ but when completeness comes, 

what is in part disappears. 

¹¹ When I was a child, 

I talked like a child, 

I thought like a child, 

I reasoned like a child. 

When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 

¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; 

then we shall see face to face. 

Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, 

even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: 

faith, 

hope 

and love. 

But the greatest of these is love.

Aug. 7, 2004