Love is Baker

12/29/2017

Googling some verses tonight. Googled Corinthians 13:4-6, the “Love is” verses. I liked the image to the right, so I clicked on it. The title of the article was “What is Love” on a website titled “I Am Baker.”

Let that soak in? Do you have goosebumps yet?

The article suggests, as I once heard at a wedding and then stole the idea for my own wedding, to replace the word “Love” with your own name. Since we are created in God’s image, and Jesus took our shortcomings with Him on the cross...it makes sense that when He, our Father who looks on us with the same adoration as we see our own children, describes you and me...He uses these words.

It’s hard to replace Love with MY name. I miss the mark in so many places. 

But then I look at Baker. I’ve described my son as a portal into heaven...actual Heaven itself.

Perfect, he is not. But inspiring, yes...that...Every. Day. Baker’s unique approach to life...the way he perceives his world...and his spirit, clearly anchored in something I could have never *taught*...leaves me in awe.

And so when I need to pause and remember what love is...when I need an example of what it looks like...maybe I just need to remember:

Baker is patient.
Baker is kind.
Baker does not envy.
He does not boast.
He is not proud.
He is not rude.
He is not self-seeking.
He is not easily angered.
Baker keeps no record of wrongs.
He does not delight in evil.
He rejoices in the truth.
Baker always protects.
He always trusts.
He always hopes.
Baker always perseveres.
He never fails.

No, he’s not perfect. And yet, I look on my son...my little portal into heaven...with an adoration that makes me see these features in him.

God looks on His children in the same light. That’s pretty exciting news, right?

What I'll Say About Politics...

The greatest of these is love. 

If you claim your spiritual beliefs are based in love, be careful today. If you claim your politics are rooted in love, be careful today.

Be careful that your actions actually express what you name and claim as your foundational truth.

You've not seen me offer ANY political opinions on Facebook. And many of you haven't even heard them in person. I have opinions and beliefs. Just ask my husband. But I often keep them to myself and exercise them at the polls, write letters, or participate in activities that correspond with those beliefs.
One of the main reason I do this is because I would rather keep those ideas private than to express them in a public forum and have anyone I love feel that my words are hateful toward him/her. Here is what I WILL say.

You know those popular verse...Love is patient, love is kind...

Before that list of what love is, Paul wrote to the Church of Corinth about what DIFFERENCE love makes:

13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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 do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13 1-3, New International Version)  

Y'all...this bickering...the gloating...the "in yo face" and the "I'm ashamed...". Be careful that your words don't cause another to feel unloved.

At the end of every day, my mother always asked me, did someone see Christ in you today? Not, did anyone notice your politics? Your stand on immigration, government assistance, education, or abortion.

But did anyone see CHRIST?
But who or what is Christ?
He is Love!
And what is love?

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13 4-13, New International Version)