Scripture for Today: I Corinthians 13:4-5 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”

Уткина Дарья, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What a bizarre creature! He looks to be having a bad hair day but in fact those are his feathery gills standing up! He seems to be grinning although if he knew of his endangered status, perhaps he wouldn’t be. This strange salamander has been given several names. No, he is not walking nor is he a fish. But this is the name the Mexicans have given him. His name in the Aztec language, “Axoloti” means “water dog.” He is simply an amphibian but his appearance does fire the imagination!

The description of love is very clear in today’s verse. Yet we tend to name many different emotions as “love” when they are not. It might look like love. It might feel like love, but many times it falls short of what true love is all about. Whether it is a brotherly love or romantic love, this much-misunderstood emotion is the commitment to faithfully seek the best for the other person. Whatever we name “love” is to resemble the qualities listed in I Corinthians 13, including the important quality of love never failing.

What an impossible standard this seems to me! My love for others is so tainted with self-interest! Thankfully, God gives me His Spirit without whom I could never give or experience this kind of love. I can only love because He first loved me! (I John 4:19) He is the Source. He is the example, and He gives the power to get myself out of the way and treat others as I would like to be treated.

Thank you Lord, for enabling true love.