February  12

Love is Patient

 
  In 1 Corinthians 13, God describes love in this way:  “Love is patient.”  There is no better example of God’s patience and forbearance toward people than the example that stares back at each of us every morning from our mirrors.  It is very human to lose patience with other people.  When we do, we then immediately fall away into very un-loving responses: anger, lack of empathy and judgment.  But God describes love in a very different way.

  Can you imagine if God lost His patience toward us each and every day?  I once owned a dog named Marbles.  Marbles has since died of old age, but when he was alive – well, Marbles was perhaps the least intelligent creature on earth.  He lost control of his bodily functions and cowered before such things as empty soda bottles.  He frequently barked at his own shadow.  On one occasion, he even suddenly attacked and injured someone who was just speaking nicely to him.  There was not much Marbles ever did right.  He was obviously way over on the doggie dumb scale.  And yet, God showed me something very important about Marbles as that little needy dog’s lifelong master.

  In my Lord Master's eyes, there is not a single day that passes that I am not acting out the human version of Marbles toward God.  My level of intelligence, obedience and understanding is the same between God and me as it was between me and Marbles.  And yet God displays infinite patience and forbearance to me.  Love is patient because those whom we love need it so desperately.  Marbles certainly needed it – and so do I with the same desperate degree.  Love is patient because we seek to mirror the love of God toward us to others He has placed in our path.  Love is patient because we are all so flawed.  Therefore if we were not the wellspring of patience toward others, they would have no hope, just as we would have no hope were it not for God’s infinite forbearance!