LOVE BELIEVES
There was a time when I was the kind of "kid" only a mother could love, and Mom was no longer there to do it.
Grief clawed me raw and made me tired, so tired. Whenever I turned around, someone needed something I didn't have. Being unable to supply it made me angry.
Would I always be that short-fused woman? The one her kids tip-toed around? The one her husband dreaded coming home to?
The answer would have remained “yes” to all of the above.
But one glorious day, love came calling.
My sister, Mary, phoned to relay a recent conversation with her young son, Taeler, which had ended in a shocking revelation.
"What do you think about Grandma?" She began.
"The nicest woman I know,” he said.
"And what about….?" Mary rattled off a list of people and Taeler's kind response to each. But then came the moment I was dreading.
"What about Aunt Nikki?"
The question hung in the air. My heart sank as I thought about recent outbursts, nasty comments and the careless regard for others that defined this awful new version of me.
I stood condemned in a court of law. Yet I was judged in a court of love. His answer rocked my world.
"Aunt Nikki is an angel."
It wasn’t true, but he chose to see me in the best light because that's what love does.
Love believes.
1 Corinthians 13:7 (ESV) describes love this way:
"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
The Amplified version zeroes into the second phrase and translates it like this:
"Love…is ever ready to believe the best of every person…(v7)"
The Greek word here for "believe" is "pisteuo", which means to "have faith in.”
In other words, love looks beyond a person’s shortcomings and sees the best version of them.
A wayward heart changes direction when believing love intervenes.
That's why Jesus came. Divine Love wrapped Himself in flesh and blood and pictured us in His arms, even as we nailed those arms to the cross.
Humans will disappoint, but Jesus never will.
When we keep our eyes on Christ, we look at people differently. Because He first loved us, we can love others by assuming the best.
And when we believe like that, the miracle begins.
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13, NLT)