Many Splendored Thing

Jesus said to his disciples: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.” (John 15:12-17)

How does one lay down one’s life for one’s friends?  Jesus did; do we?  In our case we lay down our lives when we put others first – when we decide to set aside our own needs and desires for someone else’s.  It happens when we go and bear fruit for others with Jesus watching us not as our master, but as our friend.  Our fruit – our love we give – blossoms on the branch we find ourselves as part of Jesus’ vine.  He is the vine.

Jesus said to his disciples: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.”  We are to sincerely repeat that command to those around us.  We are to speak for and as Jesus, and we are to love.  

For many of us that command seems unreasonable and impractical, especially when we seek true love.  Perhaps we should reflect on the lyrics of the song, “Love is a many splendored thing” that exemplifies laying down one’s life and a reason to be living. The lyrics are:

Love is a many splendored thing

It's the April rose that only grows in the early Spring

Love is nature's way of giving a reason to be living

The golden crown that makes a man a king

Once on a high and windy hill, In the morning mist

Two lovers kissed and the world stood still

Then your fingers touched my silent heart and taught it how to sing

Yes, true love's a many splendored thing

Love is a many splendored thing

It's the April rose that only grows in the early Spring

Love is nature's way of giving a reason to be living

The golden crown that makes a man a king

Once on a high and windy hill, In the morning mist

Two lovers kissed and the world stood still

Then your fingers touched my silent heart and taught it how to sing

Yes, true love's a many splendored thing

Deacon David Pierce