Saturday, July 14
Love Brothers and Sisters
Narrative Lectionary Daily Devotions written by Kace Leetch from Clergy Stuff.
So, have you figured out that this week's theme is "God is Love"? Simple, but so complex, too.
Today's verses encourage us to love our brothers and sisters if we are to claim we are followers of God's ways. We understand this to mean loving all people, not just the brothers and sisters of our nuclear families.
But what of our siblings? Sometimes it's not easy to love our family members. Sometimes I think if family members weren't family, we'd probably never have become friends.
My only sibling (my little sister) is one of my best friends. Every Friday morning at 11:00 MN time (9:00 her time in California) we FaceTime for an hour. (We talk throughout the week sometimes, too, but we never miss our Fridays.) We catch up on what's going on in our lives, and we don't need to fill in the gaps that are necessary when you only talk once every several months. We can pick up where we left off last week and update the details. We are close like this because we are intentional about making time for each other.
It wasn't always like that for us. When we were younger, we fought terribly. I remember thinking, "When she gets older, she's going to see how badly she hurt me and she's going to regret it. Then I'll tell her, 'I told you so,' and I'll finally prove I'm right." Funny thing about that. As we grew older, I also started to see how badly I'd hurt her, and I regretted it. She never did tell me "I told you so." And I never told her, "I told you so," either. Because by the time we both became the people that knew regret, there was no longer a need. The people we wanted to reprimand didn't exist anymore. Only grown, wiser, mature adults who already knew better. Once we let go of our need to be right, we made room to love the person standing before us. And my sister is pretty freakin' amazing! I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to see it.
Narrative Lectionary Text: 1 John 4:19-21
We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.