2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Ephesians 5:2 (NKJV)
By Bro. John L. Cash
The Bible says Christians should live lives of love. But how does that translate into everyday life? Something I’ve found is that the virtue of love often shines most brightly in the smallest acts of human kindness. I’ll tell you a story today.
In the summer of 1999, my father (whom we adored) was in the final days of his battle with cancer. I was helping take care of him in the ICU during the day and was sleeping each night in the waiting room. I don’t remember the circumstances, but for some reason I was without a vehicle; perhaps it was being repaired. At any rate, my mother had dropped me off at the hospital, and I was living there with very few belongings.
When my cousin Richard heard about my situation, he stopped by unannounced at waiting-room-bedtime. He drove me to his home and showed me to the guest bedroom. He told me to put on my pajamas and to leave the clothes I was wearing outside my door. I then fell into an exhausted sleep.
When I woke up the next morning, my clothing from the previous day was on a hanger on my doorknob, freshly laundered and pressed, ready for me to put on. At the dining room table was one plate with a bacon and eggs breakfast, complete with hot coffee and cold orange juice. Then Richard drove me back to my father in ICU. That evening he again picked me up at “closing time.” He repeated this process day after day until my father went to be with the Lord. I don’t think I would have been able to carry on without my cousin’s loving help.
Now, here’s the thing. In later years, I again thanked Richard for his kindness. He didn’t recall helping me in any way; it was just his normal manner of living. But to me, his loving presence meant the universe. It made all the difference. And I have never forgotten it.
So, follow the Lord Jesus this week, and live a life of tender compassion. Show the love of God in large things and small. You probably won’t remember all the lives you will touch. But others will never forget.
Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and has spent the last 30 years being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. (On week days has a desk-job at a public school, where he used to teach Latin on closed-circuit-television.) He and his lovely wife, Susan, live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the people of Mississippi are talking about “cool weather” because the high each day is 90 degrees.) Their kids include Spencer (age 24), his wife Madeline (age 24), and Seth (age 21).
