The weather had just changed from Southern hot to cool in Tennessee. Ordinarily this would have filled my little country heart with the brisk optimism that comes from a change in season: the autumnal joys of dark blues skies, scarlet leaves, and bright fires. But last year, the cold weather had me thinking crazy thoughts about swimming squirrels. Just a year before, we had three squirrels go for a swim in our pool over a stretch of three days. Now fall weather unexpectedly conjures up images of bushy tails, all wet and wilted, and tiny paws carefully paddling in cold turquoise water.
We’re not sure what exactly possessed the squirrels to swim, but I think they did it for love. I hypothesize that each successive swimmer was trying to rescue its predecessor. I think it’s a love story about a family of squirrels who were willing to stand up (or, in this case, dive in) and look death in the face as a way of looking after each other: Fear not, Mother Squirrel! I’m coming in after you! I don’t know a lot about the internal motivation of the squirrel, but I know the drive to protect loved ones is strong, no matter who you are.
John learned about love from the Master. He got to spend years watching how Jesus loved people, and here is his conclusion: “Let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth” (1John 3:18). The love of Jesus is love in action. And this active love was not just limited to foot washing and lake fishing. “This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (v.16).
Whew.
I don’t know about you, but the kind of love I’m willing to offer is this: I’ll help you move into your apartment, I’ll let you choose the restaurant, and I’ll include you, even though you’re not that funny—and that’s for my friends! But when Jesus died for us, we were still His enemies; “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). How much more then, should we lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters?
Love is hard. Real love means real sacrifice and compromise, and unpleasantness. Jesus is our example of love in action. He literally laid down His life for us.
This kind of love feels big. Most of us have experienced some great big feeling of love, so it seems like a natural step that we can grit our teeth and turn those feelings of love into huge, selfless actions of love. It’s sometimes possible for us to swing glorious acts and promises of love when we are at our very best, dressed in our finest, with our loved ones standing around sporting giant smiles. But we are also called upon to make good on those promises at three in the morning, when no one is watching and grand gestures are the last thing on our minds. No amount of effort is enough for me to love with the consistency, action, and sacrifice that I see in the life of Christ.
How can I follow Christ’s example? And how can I teach my children to love if I can’t even love them enough to make sure all six of them have clean teeth, let alone lay down my life for them day in and day out?
Here’s the element that changes everything: I am God’s child; He calls us His children. This means that when we love, no matter what time of day it is, we aren’t loving out of our own strength—we love in His strength. Christ’s example isn’t just an example; His love is also what enables us to love with action, because “he remains in us” (1John 3:24).
We were certainly created for love. And in our effort to show love, we will find ourselves laying down our lives for each other in some scary places, like jumping into a cold swimming pool or giving care to someone with no hope of reward. We can’t cut it in our own strength, but Christ’s call to love in action comes with a promise that He is with us, even to the very end.
Lord, I want to love in deed and in truth as it says in Your Word. Show me how I can demonstrate love to my family, my friends, and even to strangers. Let my acts of love come from my growing faith in You. And keep my heart from deceiving me, Lord. Only You can transform and renew my mind. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Vine & do
“Remain in me, & I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the bone, neither can you unless you remain in me.” JN 15:4 God help me to faithfully produce fruit for your kingdom. I cannot go this on my own. Help me to love one another not in word, but in action & truth.
My husband and I we don’t fight a whole lot. We argue, but we don’t fight. Both of us have had lives where we have consistently been shown what is more important than whose turn it is to do “x” and what kind of couch is more important.
The home I grew up in, my parents modeled self sacrifice. When their parents needed aid, they opened their homes and lives to care for aging parents. When someone else needed help, they would sometimes go without. It meant that my siblings and I didn’t get what we wanted. We would watch our peers get the latest games and clothes, and we were all in hand me downs. We laid down our comfort when a family member went to jail. Self sacrifice was a way of life. My parents didn’t just believe in Jesus, they have walked like Him again and again.
My husband comes from a single parent background. His mom and dad divorced when he was very young. He was raised by grandparents, aunts, uncles, stepdads, stepmothers and his actual parents. He learned about Jesus from vbs, his mom didn’t take him, he jumped on a bus and went. For a guy who grew up in a home where he was surrounded by some pretty offensive behavior, he makes choices that are self sacrificing. He learned at a young age that some things are more important than others.
When it came to taking care of and living with an uncle who had a history of drug use, alcohol abuse, prison time, and was battling cancer, the answer was of course we’ll do right for him. Not because he deserved it, but because that’s what you do when you believe that Jesus loves you. Jesus laid down His life for us, why would we not do the same? Here, my uncle had been my enemy, but we did it because it was necessary in living out the gospel.
I could have easily turned him away. I had every right and reason to say no. He didn’t deserve it. But I didn’t deserve what Christ did for me on the cross. Christ did nothing and paid a price not just for me, but for all. If I truly believe that Christ died and gave his life up for me, and I am to follow His example, is that not what I am to do? What we’re to do? What you are to do?
My discomfort in dealing with my uncle is nothing compared to the discomfort of the cross.
The beauty of this is because we continually laid down our comfort and peace of mind for a drunken murderer, we saw him changed over the course of 12 years. He went from a thieving, angry, bitter person, to a changed man who apologized, replaced what he took, and became kinder and softer, and read his bible with enthusiasm.
The cross is powerful and can change the hardest of hearts.
Wow Rebekah! That is love! And sacrifice.
So beautiful! Thank you for sharing your story!
Oh Lord, please give me a heart of love like Yours.
“We aren’t loving out of our own strength, we are loving with His strength.” I will definitely remember this!
Amen…powerful, Thank You Jesus for loving us first and being our example.
This was convicting today.
I had a situation a month ago where a friend was pregnant and her husband had Covid, so she was unsure if he would be able to come be with her during delivery. Without a shadow of a doubt, I offered to be with her, even though I have a husband and a baby that I would have to quarantine myself from if I went. Circumstances turned out that her husband recovered and was permitted to be there, and I didn’t have to go. But I’m stuck by how easy it was to make a grand gesture of sacrifice in that moment, however, the daily laying down of my life is so much more challenging. It feels hard to call my mom or my mother-in-law. It feels hard to get up early with my baby or to change the 3rd poopy diaper of the day. Sometimes it feels easier to love the people who are easy to love. So I’m challenged by this scripture to lean into the daily sacrifice, to ask the Lord to give me His eyes to see those that are hard for me to love and enable me to love them well with His compassion and tenderness