Love One Another

“My Command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” John 15:12 (NIV)

Norman left for World War II and came home in a casket. Three small children and a wife, Anna, had to live without him. After the war was over, she received a letter of condolence in the mail from Norman's army friend, Stephen. With many tears, Anna answered that letter by expressing how she had lost the love of her life and life would never be the same again.

Fifty years later and after Anna’s death, one of her sons, named after Norman, received an envelope in the mail. It contained the letter his mom had written. Love and comfort oozed from it as he read the words of love about the father he had lost. Norman had a better understanding of his mother’s loss and a renewed love for her.

About ten years after receiving the letter, Norman attended a reunion of his father's army unit in Portland, Maine. There he met Stephen’s widow. She told him that her husband had carried the letter in his wallet for fifty years and that she only found it after he died. Immediate friendship kindled between Norman and Stephen’s widow. Her care for that letter and the love of another overrode time and loss. The love, expressed in words of Anna’s letter and love expressed through thoughtfulness of Stephen’s widow, filled Norman’s heart. God’s love is unending.

Dear Lord, Your love flows when we love others through our words and actions. Amen

© Mary Burkey 2010