What is the greatest?

I leaveearly from Sunday School because I’m involved in providing music for the churchservice, but as I tiptoed away from class this past Sunday, the teacher’s words etchedinto my brain as she explained this verse in I Corinthians 13. “And now thesethree remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Paraphrasinghere but, in heaven we won’t need faith because we will “know fully even as I amfully known” (I Corinthians 13:12). And in that place, all that we have hopedfor will be fulfilled. It is only love that will continue eternal.

Alreadyon my heart was a story that I had the privilege to be a part. Jerry for manyyears prior to covid time was a volunteer chaplain at a local hospital. He rotatedwith other pastors who took calls at night and on weekends to give the regularhospital chaplains a break. One Sunday he received a call that a woman in hospicecare wanted to be baptized. Since the patient was a female,  for propriety’s sake, I went with him.

Thatafternoon, we arrived at a modest dwelling. When the door opened to the smallspace, the furnishings were also humble.

Butwhat was in no way modest was the sense of the Lord’s presence and the amazinglove poured out in that place through the family members and the woman herself.It was almost palpable.

Aswe sat with this bedridden sweet soul, near the end of her earthly journey,Jerry spoke with her about her relationship with the Lord, and we saw her faithand how before she passed, she wanted to do what she had meant to do before. Ashe poured the water on her head, we were all in tears as we witnessed thisbeautiful thing. It seemed to me that tiny bedroom became the gate of heaven.

Theexperience gave me a greater understanding of how love is the greatest. There’sa cliché that goes “You can’t live on love.” But I’m thinking that maybe we can.The love that filled that home amid such suffering was sustaining and beautiful.Love is the most important thing to our earthly existence, and love will bewith us in heaven, wrapping and filling us with God who is love. (I John 4:16).

MissionaryHeidi Baker writes, “The love of God manifested through you is what peoplereally need.” It's what the world is crying out for and it's up to us as believers to live it out. 

The apostle John also wrote, "Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." It's a high calling, and sometimes challenging when the love is not returned, but God's love is unconditional and so should ours be.

So the greatest? 

It's love. Now and always. 

var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-24260977-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();Beverly Varnado's most recent book is In Search of the Painted Bunting, a middle grade historical from Elk Lake Publishing, #1 in new releases in its category. She is also the author of several small town romances from Anaiah Press including her latest, A Season for Everything. All are available at Amazon. To explore the web version of One Ringing Bell, please visit bev-oneringingbell.blogspot.comTo sign up for her newsletter, go to http://eepurl.com/dHNdsX Beverly Varnado copyright 2023