Love That Brings You Home

So I'm standing there in the middle of teaching my students...going over answers to a science quiz...talking about which resources two trees are competing for...and it hit me...a picture...laughing together, cooking dinner in the kitchen, a back porch swing. It was totally unrelated to the subject matter, but enough to make me stop and pay attention. And then later this afternoon, I'm just walking down the hall after making copies for my class and all of sudden I'm surprised at my own thinking about how alive, and wanted, and at home...I still feel. And for a little while, my heart was excited, excited about going home tonight...about turning out the lights of my classroom, beating the rush hour traffic, about laughing and dancing and snuggling in close. It always meant the world to me, and it still does now.

If you have a home, and you're walking into the arms of someone you love tonight; if you have a warm dinner planned...be thankful. Forgive each other. Read between the lines. Find a way to make their hearts come alive. And rediscover what truly brought you there in the first place...rediscover why this person, why this place, drew you in and made you come alive. Many of us have forgotten, too many of us are walking away, as if we are unaware that we have been loved by a God who has never given up on us. I've heard too many disheartening stories lately. It takes courage to believe that love is more than a feeling, to believe that love can be reborn. It takes two...to believe again, to hope for more, to trust that God can make all things new. If you're out there tonight, stuck between starting again and walking away for good, and you're wondering what to do, and you're afraid...come home...home is waiting for you...to tell you that everything is going to be okay. It's never too late to start again...it's never too late to ask God for a second chance. It's never too late to walk in the door...and find what you've been out there looking for all along.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If 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. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

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

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

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

Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13