Sunday, June 28, 2015

This is My Command

It's been far too long since I've written on this blog. Spring arrived and with it all the wonderful things that my favorite time of year brings, namely tending to gardens. So now, on this rainy late June evening, sections of the garden are freshly planted with some late summer veggies, while the rest grows on with its towering celery and sunflowers, its many herbs, late lettuce, peppers, and a plethora of tomato vines bearing green promises of scrumptious red tomatoes to come in the next few weeks.

In the midst of all this joyous time outside among the veggies, the flowers, the fruit trees and bushes and brambles, the world took some turns. For those of us who hold our Christian beliefs near and dear, it's a time of pause.

Our world, with the whoosh of a pen, became quite different. And, to give us greater pause, those of us who hold our tightly to our precious Christian beliefs became less liked and tolerated. We are living in a time when we are shamed by our friends, neighbors, acquaintances, and even family for not being tolerant, yet we are not tolerated. We are aware that, with the bang of the gavel of a judge, we immediately became hard-hearted and, according to many, we just don't get it.

We get it. We've been told this would happen. It's okay. We're in good hands.  "You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved" (Matthew 10:22).

Are we hard-hearted and hateful because we don't join in hardy agreement with ideas that contradict tenets from our Bible? I don't think so. Please take a moment and read the following passages:

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. This is my command: Love one another" (John 15:9-13, 17).

So, you see, we love all--it is commanded of us by our Savior and we obey. We may not agree with what our brothers and sisters on this blessed Earth choose to believe, but we love all, nonetheless.

We pray all will know this love. Blessings.