September 19, 2012 (Wednesday)
I like scifi stuff, and on Monday evening I saw one of those programs that had a message for me as well as entertainment. Here’s what happened in the show. A boy visiting his father suddenly announced that he wanted to go home (back to his mother in another city). He got the idea that his father was somehow disappointed in him and so he felt rejected. His father could not understand why his son was so upset. He thought everything was going well and he was overjoyed to have his son visiting him. Enter a third person, who took the hand of the father in her right hand and the hand of the son in her left. Here’s where the scifi stuff comes in: she was able to communicate through touch. She said to the father, “This is how your son thought you felt about him,” and through her the feelings of the son flooded the father’s entire being. He felt what his son was feeling, and it was painful. Then she said to the boy, “This is how your father really feels,” and then the son was flooded by the tender compassionate feelings of the father for his son. The boy said, “I have never felt this way before; I don’t know what you call it.” And the lady said, “It’s called ‘love.'” Suddenly, without words, feelings had been communicated and the father and son were reunited in a tight embrace.
We talk a lot about what we think about things. Sometimes we have bitter disputes with others who think differently. But is it what we think that is dividing us and causing us to hurt each other? Or is it what we feel?
Isn’t this what Paul was talking about when he wrote 1 Corinthians 13? The problem in the church in Corinth centered upon what people were thinking. Those thoughts engendered envy, jealousy and rage. Paul urged them to love each other. He made it clear that love is the greatest virtue of them all. He longed for the Christians in Corinth to be unified, but he knew that unity would come only when love ruled in their hearts.
Jesus was asked, “What is the greatest commandment of all?” His reply was “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love is the greatest thing in the world.
Love is the theme.