Listen

Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God remains in us and his love is made perfect in us.

1 John 4:11-12

Think

For many years before working as a youth minister, I served as a hospice chaplain. This calling took me to the bedside of patients during their final days. As the end of their life drew near, they would experience similar sights and feelings. No matter their previous professions or economic status, their gender or race, they would describe feeling warmth and love. They would say the room felt like a hug or they felt the closeness of those they loved. They saw light and felt gentleness.

Death was not always like this for every patient, but I experienced it with too many people in too many places not to recognize something more than a clinical experience.

I could not see a tangible presence of God, but I could sense God’s love in the warmth and love, light and peace that surrounded them. Love remained even in these moments filled with grief. We may not see God physically, but God’s complete love remains.

Whitney Edwards-Russell

Question to Ponder:

Where do you recognize God in others?

Pray

God, help me to love myself and others with warmth and love, light and peace. Help me to know that your love remains in me, so I can share that love with others. One person I can show your love today is…

Amen.

Go

Jesus loves me still today,

walking with me on my way,

wanting as a friend to give

light and love to all who live.

Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.

Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.

– Anna B. Warner, “Jesus Loves Me”