Love

Psalm 34:18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

The broken hearted find favor in the eyes of God.  He knows our pain.  He feels our anguish.   He will not forget you in the darkest hours of your life.   I never grow tired of this timeless poem:

One night I dreamed a dream.  I was walking along the beach with my Lord.  Across the sky flashed scenes from my life.  For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to me and one to my Lord.

When the last scene of my life flashed before me I looked back at the footprints in the sand.  There was only one set of footprints.  I realized that this was at the lowest and saddest time of my life.  This bothered me so I questioned the Lord about it.

Lord, you told me when I decided to follow You, You would walk with me all the way.  But during the most troublesome time of my life, there is only one set of footprints.  I don’t understand why, when I needed You most,  You left me.

He whsipered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you.  During the most troubling times in your life, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then, that I carried you.

Love as explained by God

1 Corinthians 13

1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

2If 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 have not love, I am nothing.

3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8Love 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.

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

10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

11When 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 childish ways behind me.

12Now we see but a poor 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.

13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.