- Joined
- Apr 25, 2006
- Messages
- 18,404
That's real love
'LOVE NEVER FAILS.' 1 CORINTHIANS 13 :8
Author Richard Selzer writes: 'I stand by the bed where a young woman lays, her face post-operative, her mouth twisted in palsy; clownish. A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed.
The surgeon had followed with religious fervour the curve of her flesh; I promise you that. Nonetheless, to remove the tumour from her cheek I had to cut the little nerve. Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed, and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private.
Who are they, I ask myself, he and this wry-mouth I have made, who gaze at and touch each other so generously, greedily? "Will my mouth always be like this?" she asks. "Yes," I say, "it will be. It is because the nerve was cut." She nods and is silent. But the young man smiles. "I like it," he says, "it's kind of cute." All at once I know who he is. I understand, and I lower my gaze. One is not old in an encounter with God.
Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth, and I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate her, and to show her that their kiss still works.' When trouble comes and hurts the people you love; do you stand by them to the end or do you run and hide to try and protect yourself? The Apostle Paul talks about love, Listen, 'It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres' (1 Corinthians 13:7 NIV). That's real love!
written by Bob Gass
'LOVE NEVER FAILS.' 1 CORINTHIANS 13 :8
Author Richard Selzer writes: 'I stand by the bed where a young woman lays, her face post-operative, her mouth twisted in palsy; clownish. A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed.
The surgeon had followed with religious fervour the curve of her flesh; I promise you that. Nonetheless, to remove the tumour from her cheek I had to cut the little nerve. Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed, and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private.
Who are they, I ask myself, he and this wry-mouth I have made, who gaze at and touch each other so generously, greedily? "Will my mouth always be like this?" she asks. "Yes," I say, "it will be. It is because the nerve was cut." She nods and is silent. But the young man smiles. "I like it," he says, "it's kind of cute." All at once I know who he is. I understand, and I lower my gaze. One is not old in an encounter with God.
Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth, and I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate her, and to show her that their kiss still works.' When trouble comes and hurts the people you love; do you stand by them to the end or do you run and hide to try and protect yourself? The Apostle Paul talks about love, Listen, 'It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres' (1 Corinthians 13:7 NIV). That's real love!
written by Bob Gass
Last edited: