The Why of Love!

Yesterday was our 40th anniversary. What a great day of memory making! We've saved for some time, and finally bought an anniversary gift for ourselves that's serviceable, but fun, too: a Polaris Ranger. Daily, Bay uses it for working around "The Property," running back and forth from barn to home. However, yesterday, we hauled it to a parking spot near the national forest and did a little touring to places you can't normally take a car. We'd hoped to make it an overnight trip, but the possibility of increment weather & an evening prayer time we wanted to make, curtailed that thought. Didn't matter. It was a gorgeous day, after all, and we were spellbound. Along the way, we stopped to picnic, to hike, to share our dreams, to enjoy the views & the sun, to read, and even to nap. It was a PERFECT way to celebrate 40 years!

Forty years! Where has the time gone? That was the thought that incessantly swirled around through my brain. It simply feels like I only just turned around, and the time has passed. I know it must be true, we have three adult-children, over a dozen "babes" that call us Nana & Papa; and a host of pictures that prove time has passed. Over night, the toil of life has taken over, and here we are. Wowser!

As I continue reading in 1 Peter, I think the man must have felt the same way, when he wrote the following:

All flesh is like grass, and all it's glory like the flower of the fields. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord abides forever (1:24-25).

Peter's quoting the Psalmist & the Prophet Isaiah, speaking of the life of man (Ps. 90:4-6).

A thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night. You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep.  In the morning, they are like grass which sprouts anew.  In the morning it flourishes, and sprouts anew; toward evening it fades, and withers away.

Yes, that's how it feels to look back over 40 years!  Like a piece of grass fresh in the morning, fading in the evening.  We're fading, as we move toward evening.

This isn't meant to be morbid.  It has caused me to be reflective, as is typical.  The Psalmist goes on (vs 12):  So teach us to number our days, that we may present to Thee a  heart of wisdom!

I've had a lot of years to number my days.  Gotta admit, not every day do I make count.  So, as I continue to meander toward evening, I really do want to make my days matter.  I want to engage in that which abides; only that which is truly lasting.  Peter says it's THE WORD OF THE LORD.  Paul says, these things remain: faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor 13:13); which are all active.  The Word is the noun; but faith, hope, and love - these are the verbs that result from knowing the noun.  

The greatest of these is love!  Peter would agree.  He's just built that case all through chapter 1.  Because we've been so loved, he tells us -  live loved.  I mentioned what that looks like last week.  Now, I understand "the why" he is so adamant about, fervently and earnestly, living out love.  Time is too short!  Like a blade of grass we sprout, we wither, we're gone...but the actions of the Truth never die. They remain.  They abide.  They go on, through the lives of those we've loved well.

Indeed, the Lord has been planting seeds of new ideas, new ways, that I can do this more effectively until evening has come.  He's not through with this blade of grass....not yet! I'm looking forward, with renewed enthusiasm, for the remainder of the day!