Within all of us is the capacity to love.
Today could be that day when your words and actions of love can change the hearts of people who are hurting. This romantic story we have been reading over the last few days demonstrates this, but it doesn’t need to be a romantic one to bring healing to someone’s difficult season.
“Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. 63 He went out to the field one evening to meditate,and as he looked up, he saw camels approaching. 64 Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down from her camel 65 and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?” “He is my master,” the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself. 66 Then the servant told Isaac all he had done. 67 Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” (Genesis 24 v 62-67)
Isaac is still grieving his mother. He is 40 years of age (25:20), and Sarah had died 3 years before. She was 127 years old when she died (23:1), 90 years old when Isaac was born (17:17), and Isaac was therefore 37 years old when she died.
Even grown men at 40 years of age grieve their mothers.
Here we find him (and Rebekah too) in the desert one evening, meditating, his heart needing to find solace.
From that moment, this story became a love story.
But it was more than that. It became a healing story.
He opens his heart again after his loss. Love was there.
He permits his life to continue past his mother. Love was there.
He receives his needed comfort. Love was there.
When he went out to meditate that evening, we don’t know what he was thinking over, but we do know the state of his heart. The ordinariness of that evening became a moment that would change his world as he knew it. He moved from hurt to healing. This is the power of love.
You don’t need a married partner to do that. The principle also applies to the love of a friend. Let today be a day of love, for you may not know the people you will meet who are hurting.
Missions Paul 