Love Never Dies
“Love never dies.”—1 Corinthians 13:8.
I have heard this passage from 1 Corinthians about love so many times; but when I heard it recently, directly from our friend Paul and our preacher Michael McCain, I was moved to tears. I have told people who are grieving that the love they have for and from their loved one is still there and never dies.
I don’t understand it. It is a mystery. I know I look at pictures of my loved ones who have died, my brother and my grandparents, and I can feel their love as I send my love to them.
Frederick Buechner and Henri Nouwen tell us that our bodies die, but our mutual love somehow returns to God and is kept for all eternity.
If you are a mystic, you have no difficulty understanding this. If you are a person who comprehends mainly by rational thinking, this may be a difficult concept.
Why did this passage so move me that Sunday? As I grow older, I have been obsessing about how I will miss friends and family members when we become separated by death. Suddenly I know in my heart that the love we have for each other will always endure.
Our love for them is ongoing, as is their love for us. We will never be lonely. I believe that in some mysterious way this love never dies and is carried forward in eternity to be a transforming effect in ourselves, in them, and in the universe.
Today I am thinking of the love of two friends who have died, my younger brother, Jimmy, and a longtime friend, Phyllis.
Joanna Joannaseibert.com
