Love...

 If you are old enough you will remember the song: "Love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage, this I tell you brother, you can't have one without the other" and marriage of course, is giving yourself to the one you love. This was certainly true for Audrey and me: we fell in love and then got married so we could share our entire way of living and that is why we took those vows in church that we would "look after each other, for better for worse, in sickness and in health, for as long as we both shall live". (incidentally, that isn't us in the buggy, we had a two-wheeled sulky, for around the farm, and the family still have it). Taking that marriage vow though, wan an outward and binding expression of our love, pledged before God and our friends. Marriages can fail, but that was never in God's plan, and ours succeeded until Audrey died at 84.

The Greeks had, (and many still have, for all I know), five different words for love that in the English language we just "lump together" into that one word "Love". So we say we love a cup of tea, we love our husband or wife, we love the picture on the wall, we love our children and so on, and when we use the word like that we know what we mean, and so do those that hear us. At Christmas, which has just passed, we loved the lights and the decorations on the houses and in shop windows, we loved the feeling of expectancy that was in the air. Many of us just loved the thought that we would be seeing our friends and relations again, little children were thrilled to see "Santy" and loved telling him what they wanted for Christmas, and people were searching for the gift that would be just right for someone they loved.

How come that we were so willing to part with our hard earned money like that? Well, it was simply because "it is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35) and that is one of the truths that God has implanted in our Soul. The Apostle John puts it like this: "He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is Love" (1 John 4:8) and if we love we automatically want to demonstrate that love in a practical way by giving.

That of course is why this atmosphere of love is so apparent at Christmas. You see it was commenced by God Himself: "God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son..." (John 3:16). Love and giving go together.

In the Good Old Days Horses were used by people and went well together too. That is Audrey there going to muster sheep, and just as horses and carriages were designed for each other, so loving and giving are an inseparable part of each other.  The New Testament book of 1 Corinthians devotes the whole of chapter 13 to the value of love and concludes: "and now abideth faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" And when in Galatians 5:22 the "fruit of the Holy Spirit" is listed, Love is the first attribute mentioned and is followed by Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. We are told that even if we had such faith that we could move mountains, a faith like that, without love, profits us nothing.

If we are going to reap the full benefit of Christmas then, we should accept the gift that God offers to those who "believe" in Jesus,  which is the forgiveness of sin, and is the greatest gift a loving God could give us. (We obtain that forgiveness by repenting and asking for it in prayer). That way we become "righteous" in His sight and therefore can also ask that God's Holy Spirit will use our bodies as His temple, so that the "fruit" mentioned above will become evident in our lives. Thus, for us the spirit of Christmas will not only be in December each year, but will control our behaviour for each of the 365 days. Therefore, our entry into Heaven, when our days here are concluded, will be very comfortable as we will find ourselves in the Kingdom where the God of love reigns, and there is no more selfishness, sickness or unhappiness.