Remain In Love

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we must also love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and His Love is brought to perfection in us. This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us, that He has given us of His Spirit. Moreover, we have seen and testify that the Father sent His Son as savior of the world. Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in Him and he in God. We have come to know and to believe in the Love God has for us. God IS Love, and whoever remains in Love remains in God and God in Him." -[1 John 4:11-16].


My son seemed like he was just a baby, only "yesterday". Now, he is a young teen. In only a few months, he will be going off to University.

Although he will come home a lot from University, I will now be losing that daily, intense interaction which I have had with him so many years. My fear is that I have run out of time to teach him anything more. Have I taught him everything he needs to know?

In Deuteronomy 11:14, 19, God says to His people: "Listen obediently to my commandments, which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and soul. . . . You shall teach them to your children, talking of them where you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up."

This was wise, Old Testament counsel. The many, many ways in which God's Chosen People were to show their Love for God was by being obedient to His Laws.

In Luke 10: 25-28, Jesus repeats the Old Testament commandment, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind [The First Great Commandment]; and thy neighbor has thyself". [The Second Great Commandment].

Then, Jesus introduced a new Commandment, "Love one another as I have loved you. By this, all will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another." -[John 13:34-35].

I did teach my son, all day long from sunrise to sunset. I talked about what to do IF this happened or THAT happened. But I gradually came to understand, even when my son turned 3 and went off pre-school, that I could not possibly enumerate every situation in which he would find himself.

Before I sent my son into his pre-school classroom his first day, I told him, "If you forget what to do, or feel unsure, always choose the loving thing. Also, be sure to be part of the solution, not part of the problem."  I told him, For example, if a little girl slides down the slide too fast and ends up in a puddle, go be sure she is okay, then run to get a teacher."

This is what Jesus is doing in His parting words to His disciples. Telling them, 'Love your God, with all your heart and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love others as I have loved you.' How much did Jesus love us? To the death.

One day when my son was five, a little girl DID fall off the end of the slide, right into a mud puddle. All the other kids told, frozen. He ran over to be sure she was okay. Then, he ran to get a teacher.

When I picked my son up from school that day, he said, "She fell off the slide, Mommy. She was all muddy. But I helped her up, and ran to get a teacher. BUT, how did you know that would happen?"

I smiled and said, "Mothers just know things."

I remember, too, the talk which my son and I had about God. Once day when my son was 3 or 4, he asked, looking up to the Heavens - "WHY does God have to be so big and far away?" I told him, "But God is also very, very small. He is in every little ladybug and in every grain of sand."

At this age, my son was asking, "But where IS God? How come I cannot see Him?' I said, "God is nowhere in particular, but He is everywhere."

What I should have said was, "God is in the Love inside you, the Love which you share everyday with others. God becomes visible through His Love inside us, which we shine upon others."

Recently, my son and I had another talk. He asked me, "But why DO I have to leave home and to go out in the world, and to work?" I told him, "You have wonderful gifts. Everyone is given something that they are very good at. You must use these gifts to try to make our world a better place. We need all the Good Guys we can get." Finally, after all the years of my son not seeing the relevance of school, he is beginning to understand that he must get his education and go forth.

The hymn this Sunday in church was "As a Fire Is Meant for Burning."  The lyrics in the second verse make clear our mission of Love: "Not to preach our creeds or customs, but to build a bridge of care, we join hands across the nations, finding neighbors everywhere. By our gentle, loving actions, we would show that Christ is light."

In John 17: 11B-19, Jesus prays to His Father, "When I was with [my disciples], I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them. I gave them your Word and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world. Consecrate them [make them sacred] in your Truth. Your Word is Truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world."

And so, I pray this over my own son:  'Son, I protected you and guarded you, as long as you were with me. Now I send you out into the world. You may be hated for living the Truth, which IS Love and which IS God. I pray that your love of the Truth be made sacred. I pray that you be kept away from Evil forces. No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God remains in us, and His Love is brought to perfection in us. By the Love you show to the world, the world will come to see God.'

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