The Bonds of Love
Linda Soller | Feb 23, 2015
So we have been talking about love all month. Love is one of those words easily tossed around. I love that show! I Iove that song! I love pizza! I love my job! You get my point. There is nothing really wrong with using the word love, as long as it doesn’t become trivial. Do I really love pizza or do I like it a lot? You may think the difference between the two meanings is insignificant. And if you do, we will just have to disagree. When I think of the word love I think in terms of a bond, a connection, something that is anything but insignificant.
Last week we had a little snow in our area. For the people of Boston it would hardly count at all, but in the D.C. metro area it caused a stir. Problem was several storms had skirted by and this time it appeared we could actually get as much as eight inches. I love my mother. So we decided she should come to my house just in case there was a power outage. Turned out to be a pretty minor event, enough to close schools and require some shoveling. The next afternoon I was able to take mom home. We got to her house to find her generous neighbors had snow plowed her drive. She and I had minimal work to clear a path to the house and clean the steps. Lessons learned: one, her neighbors know how to show neighborly love, and two, next storm I might want to stay at her house. Neighbors show love by caring for each other, not because they have to, but because they want to. They are bonded together by proximity and common situations.
I know you realize I write this blog for our church web page. I try not to talk about our church like it’s the best thing since sliced bread. It may be for me, but it may not be for others. Even so, I have to say we have a congregation full of love. You can see it in the way guests are greeted and feel it in the use of our prayer chain. What’s a prayer chain? Well if you need and want prayers you contact the prayer chain and your request is shot out to all who are on the chain. You can ask for yourself or for someone else. What’s the big deal? You would have to see the prayer requests we get to truly understand. We get requests for friends of friends, for family members of co-workers, in addition to our own members. We pray for everything from illness to recovery, and from loss to happiness. We get prayer requests from people who simply know about our prayer chain. My guess is that other churches have similar experiences, but that doesn’t detract from the prayer chain as a demonstration of love. The bonds of love we feel with our friends and co-workers are so important to our happiness. The bond of love our members feel for each other is a blessing and a gift. We value prayer. The bonds we have with others make us want to share the bond of love we feel for God, through prayer. All these bonds of love connect us and make us part of something much bigger than any one person, or one congregation, or one neighbor.
As we head in to spring let’s try to focus on the bonds of love we share. Each day I challenge you to think of something you can do for someone else. Do something out of love, without expecting payment, or recognition. Do something just because you share a bond. And when you use the word love, I hope you mean it, I hope it’s significant.
Have a great week! :o) Linda