Love never ends

I just had the privilege of doing a memorial service, and it was the highlight of my week.  Now that's not saying that I've had a bad week, but it was just one of those uplifting moments where you could feel the love of those gathered merging with the love of God.  God's love is always present, of course, but there are those moments when we get a little taste of heaven, where our joy makes us aware of God's loving presence in a powerful new way.

The service was for one of the adult residents in our Developmentally Disabled Ministries (DDM) program.  He was actually one of our first residents who joined us in 1992, so he had lots of friends, "brothers", and loving staff.  In all my years here (over seven), I never heard him speak, but even so, you could just sense his love in his welcoming smile.  It was amazing to hear everyone's recollections, but my favorite was that he was "love personified". 

I read from 1 Corinthians 13:

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.

This is God's love, but in rare occurrences, we see it modeled in others.  Those gathered today had experienced that love in their friend, JC Davis.  Although he spoke few words, his life spoke volumes.  May we all be encouraged to live such a life of love, to "Be still and know God" and to BE LOVE to others.