Show Love While You Can 

The recent death of my wife’s sister-in-law reminded me that we shouldn’t take our loved ones for granted. It made me think of an episode of an old classic TV show I watched a couple of weeks ago. The son on The Donna Reed Show was being unusually nice to his older sister. Typically, as siblings tend to do, they would fuss and fight with each other. So the brother’s nice treatment of his sister seemed especially strange. His sister was certain he must have done something bad that she didn’t know about yet. Or else, she concluded, he was buttering her up to ask for some big favor. His behavior was driving her crazy. However, soon the reason behind his overly-polite conduct was discovered. His mom happened to see a letter he was writing to a friend. In it, he explained how he had been thinking about the fact that his sister was about to go away to college. He realized he was actually going to miss her. It had caused him to contemplate on how important family is. Therefore he regretted the way he had often acted toward her and was trying to make up for it.

We would all do well to keep that truth in mind. We don’t know how long anyone is going to be here with us or how long we will be here. Children do grow up all too quickly. Before we know it, they will be off to college, married, or otherwise out on their own. Other people in our lives change jobs and move away. And then there are those who pass away and are no longer with us. Since we don’t know how long we have with one another, what is the wise thing for us to do?

Primarily, we need to love each other while we can. I don’t know that we need to go to extremes with it to the point that we make others suspicious of our motives, as that TV character did. However, we might do well to examine our behavior and how we treat each other. Most likely it could use some improvement. We could try harder to get along with others. We can avoid letting little things divide us or otherwise harm our relationships. It may not be easy to do at times. We may need the Lord’s help to love some of those people who can be hard to love. At the same time, we need Him to help others love us because admittedly we can be hard to love sometimes. Let’s not take our family, friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ for granted. Let the people around you know that they are important to you. Let’s treat them the way we should.

The Bible has a lot to say about loving one another. So let me close by reminding us all of some of those challenging scriptures on this subject.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God…He who does not love, does not know God (I John 4:7-8).

“A new commandment I (Jesus) give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another (John 13:34).

“Just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise” (Luke 6:31).

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (I Corinthians 13:4-7).

To whom do we need to express our love today – not only in our words but also in our actions?