When we stop and reflect on our entire life, we see the many twists, turns, hurdles and ditches that we have encountered.  But despite any difficulties we met, we continued on, growing in wisdom, strength, courage and perseverance, qualities we needed to endure on our journey.  However, the most significant part of our trek has been God walking with us, guiding us and protecting us from the evil lurking in our path.  He is continually demonstrating His love for us and all His children.

In John 13:34, Jesus is telling us to love one another as He loves us.  The greatest gift of LOVE that each of us will ever experience in this life is His dying on the Cross for every sin we will ever commit.  On the Cross, Jesus looked past the cruel acts of His persecutors, and showed His love for them by asking the Father to forgive them, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” [Luke 23:34]

No one on this earth can give us such a gift of love.  When we truly understand that incredible gift, our inclination should be to return that love to Jesus throughout our day from the depths of our hearts in thoughts and praise.  Even though we won’t be able to love Him as much as He loves us, we can ask Him to help us love Him more ever day of the rest of our life.  It’ll only be when we are in the Kingdom with Him will we be able to give Him the totally focused love that He deserves. 

So what do we do now to please Him?  We can start right now by becoming a love bucket that never empties, showering love in abundance towards everyone we meet wherever we travel. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, we can see what’s in the love bucket: “Love is patient, love is kind.  It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.  It bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 

Like Jesus’ example on the Cross, we are called to look past people’s actions and still show them love, the more the better.  This means we will have to stop judging people for whatever reason that pops into our mind and see them as Jesus sees them with love.  Jesus is counting on us to be His heart out in the world, so that everyone we meet can see His love for them through us.

That thought triggers the refrain in the song, They’ll Know We Are Christians:

And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love,

Yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

I like what St. Dominic once said, “grains bears fruit if sown, but if stored, it rots.”  Love can be similar to that. If shared widely it does much good in the world, but if kept only in our heart, then the outside world never sees, or benefits from, our love.

If we harbor any unforgiving feelings and thoughts toward anyone, let’s drown them out with love from our love bucket, forgiving them as Jesus wants us to do.  We know we have finally forgiven people when we can say good things about them, wish good in their lives, and maybe even pray for them.  If we struggle with giving love, then we can sincerely ask God to help us grow in love, which, more than likely, will happen over time because we are open to change.

Walking around spreading love from our love bucket could be a game changer in our own life, meaning that we might be surprised at the special people that such love could attract, by the gift of God, to our life. 

LET’S SHOW LOVE IN THE WORLD, AND BY OUR EFFORTS MAKE IT A BETTER PLACE!