Today's Devotional Thought
October 16, 2012 by Rachel Piferi
Love Obviously
It was a beautiful May day in southern Florida. I remember the gorgeous blue skies and warm sunshine and thinking that it was the perfect day and setting for a wedding. The bride was beautiful and the groom was handsome. I remember how gorgeous the wedding party looked against a backdrop of Florida sunshine. I even remember thinking, "Why didn't I get married in a setting like this?"
I remember it being a breathtakingly beautiful day for a breathtakingly momentous occasion: a wedding. And more than anything, I remember the overwhelming love I saw between the bride and the groom. The bride's face beamed with love. Her beautiful, dimpled face just shined with love and excitement to be marrying this man.
As I watched them exchange vows, I cried at how sweet and powerful the emotion in that room was. As I listened to wedding party members talk about the bride, I heard things like, "She just loves to love."
And oh how it showed during that beautiful ceremony. A ceremony about love.
I thought about that wedding recently as I studied the book of James. I thought about the love that was so obvious in that beautiful bride on that gorgeous May day and how she demonstrated it so clearly to everyone in that room. And, I thought about being the bride of Christ and how James urges us to demonstrate our love for Christ. James so powerfully tells us to show our faith and love of Jesus by loving others well and obviously.
As I have studied this book of the Bible, I have thought, "Do I show that overwhelming love for Jesus that is inside of me?"
Can others see, like I saw in that bride, how excited I am to be loving, serving, and following Him?
As followers of Jesus, we should be so crazy in love with Him that everyone can see it. We should beam with love and excitement over what Jesus means to us. Others should be able to see Jesus by how we love others, how we speak to others, how we give to others, and how we live our lives daily.
Like the love that was so obvious in that bride, we should have a love so obvious that others feel it by merely being around us. Our faces should shine, like that bride's did, with love.
Today, I urge you to show others the love of Christ by your actions, by your mood, and let your face and smile show others how real his love is to you. May your face shine with the love of Jesus today and reflect your love of him. May we all be like that beautiful bride who so clearly and obviously showed those around her how much love she felt for her husband.
It was something that I have remembered since that beautiful day and I guarantee you that others will remember seeing that kind of love in you too.
Love obviously today, sweet friends. Love obviously.
December