POWER OF LOVE
My parents wedding day - March 18, 1963 - Washington, D.C.
“Here, Honey. Let me take that for you.”
Mommy heard those kind words from Daddy when he walked tired through the door most afternoons.
He offered them when he noticed the familiar slump of her shoulders over the kitchen sink that told him she was tired, too, in a different kind of way. He saw how her hands moved steel wool through the suds- back and forth, back and forth - trying to scrub where the shame had scalded.
My father’s offer would go unacknowledged until she finally turned to grab the dish towel and came face to face with his love.
When Daddy searched her hazel eyes, he saw a battle that no woman could fight alone. He couldn’t save her, couldn’t fix it. He could only take the rag from her hand and escort her to the couch.
I’m sure he might have preferred to do what most dads did in those days- crack a beer, put his feet up until supper was ready. But instead, he chose to pour his love over my mother’s pain, drop by drop by drop. He did the little he could, even if that little seemed like not hardly enough.
My dad did then what God calls each of us to do today -to stand steadfast between the fallen and those who demand their surrender, to answer the battle cry with one loving word at a time.
For divine love is the blade we wield when armies of darkness gather and begin to roll strong against us. Love’s sword may feel much too light in our hands, but that is because our God bears its full weight.
The King of kings and Lord of lords arms His little children with the most ridiculous weapons -dish rags, kind words, tender touches-and declares them mighty warriors. But He places these unlikely sabers in our hands because He knows what the world does not.
One damp dishtowel held in the hands of love can soak up an ocean of pain.
One simple act of love done in the name of Jesus has the power to turn the tide of any war and lead generations marching on to victory.
God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to shame the wise, and He chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the powerful.
1 Corinthians 1:27 gnt