Streams of Mercy

I’ve been using Listening to Your Life, a daily devotional book by Frederick Buechner, for many years. “Love Each Other” seems important to share this Valentine’s Day.

“Love Each Other”

Matthew the tax-collector and Thomas the doubter.

Peter the Rock and Judas the traitor. Mary Magdalene

and Lazarus’s sister Martha. And the popcorn-eating

old woman. And the fat man in the pick-up. They are

all our family, and you and I are their family and each

other’s family, because that is what Jesus has called us

as the Church to be.

Our happiness is all mixed up with each other’s happiness

and our peace with each other’s peace. Our own happiness,

our own peace, can never be complete until we find some

way of sharing it with people who the way things are now

have no happiness and know no peace. Jesus calls us to show

this truth forth, live this truth forth. Be the light of the world,

he says. Where there are dark places, be the light especially there.

Be the salt of the earth. Bring out the true flavor of what it is

to be alive truly. Be truly alive. Be life-givers to others. That is

what Jesus tells the disciples to be. That is what Jesus tells his

Church, tells us, to be and do.

Love each other. Heal the sick, he says. Raise the dead.

Cleanse lepers. Cast out demons. That is what loving each

other means. If the Church is doing things like that, then it

is being what Jesus told it to be. If it is not doing things like that

– no matter how many other good and useful things it may

be doing instead – then it is not being what Jesus told it to be.

It is as simple as that.

We spend a lifetime learning to love each other, and I’m thankful for Buechner’s words to help us find the way. Happy Valentine’s Day, and may we learn to love each other as God has loved us.

Elizabeth