The Importance of Being There
I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.—2 John 1:12 (NIV)
Love…always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.—1 CORINTHIANS 13:7 (NIV)
When I visited my aunt in her senior-living facility, I noticed a couple sitting in the dining room—a resident and her husband, who came to visit her every afternoon. The man cupped a harmonica in his hands and played while his wife looked straight ahead. Did she remember her husband? I wasn’t certain, but the music must have been meaningful, maybe even familiar.
I was so enchanted by the man’s demonstration of love and devotion that I shared the story often, which is how I discovered that he and his wife were the parents of a friend from church. She told me that the 97-year-old Mr. Carl had learned to play the harmonica aboard ship during WWII, shortly after leaving his new bride stateside. For nearly 70 years, his music was as much a part of their marriage as the two of them, and now his music was part of his caregiving for her.
I listened to Mr. Carl play his harmonica for his wife on afternoons for several years, and got to know him well enough that I invited him to my daughter’s wedding. His jitterbugging at the reception almost stole the spotlight away from her, but that was okay. We all knew what a wonderful example of love Mr. Carl provided for all of us.
Father, thank you for giving us wonderful examples of love to follow.
I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.—2 John 1:12 (NIV)
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.—2 Corinthians 1:3–4 (NIV)
The one who gets wisdom loves life; the one who cherishes understanding will soon prosper.—Proverbs 19:8 (NIV)