What Love Can Do

Every now and then you get to see what love can do. At times you may detect it in a grown-up choice made by a child you doubted would ever dip a toe into maturity. Other times you observe it over your shoulder from an objective distance, such as when you witness an unexpected act of kindness by a stranger for a stranger. The best times are when it approaches up close and personal, catching you by surprise. My wife had such a moment this evening when our five-year-old grandson brought a bottle of water to help with her laryngitis and proceeded to tell her what she already knew--that the two-year-old foster child wasn't in their home anymore. Josh's explanation went something like this: "I have some good news and some bad news JoJo (my wife). The good is that Julian went back to live with his real family. The bad is that I don't have a little brother no more."  

My own intimate glimpse of love's impact came this morning during a complimentary ride from Enterprise Rental to our home. I dropped off my rental and a young man welcomed me into a car in order to drive me back to Bosqueville. He was a talkative young man, and during the course of our conversation I innocently mentioned that I was a preacher, among other things. His eyes became animated along with the rest of him, and he proceeded to tell me how his life had recently begun to change. He told a story of how he dreamed one night about the Old Testament scripture Isaiah 40:28-31. He quoted the verses flawlessly out loud and then told me that he had asked one of the managers if he knew what it meant. The manager explained the verses and helped the young man determine the application for his own life. Since then he has hungered for the Word of God, and, in his own words, everything in his life is different. He concluded by saying that he wanted to be just like his supervisor. It just so happens that the manager who assisted with the interpretation is a young man that I had lunch with recently, at his request, in order to discuss how God might use him right there in his management role with a rental car company. What a small world this global village becomes when we are able to see some of the payout of investing in another life. By the way, the young driver told me that now he's encouraging his fiancé to embark upon some major changes in her own life. All of this reminds me of the little boy that told a pet store owner that he wanted to buy a certain puppy he saw in the shopkeeper's window. The skeptical owner tried to persuade him to make a different choice, explaining that the dog the boy had chosen was the runt of the litter and not likely to be very healthy, if it survived at all. Undaunted, the little boy replied, "Mister, you don't know what love can do."

"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." (Philippians 1:9-11, KJV)