When I was a student minister there was a man in one of the congregations which I was attached to who has come to epitomise the example of Christian love, which so many hanker after when they use 1 Corinthians 13 at their wedding.
He was well into his eighties when I met him and his wife lived no more than 10 minutes drive by car in a nursing home facility, she suffered from dementia and no longer recognised him.
Because he could no longer drive the man caught 2 buses each day, taking over an hour each way, to go and visit with his wife, sitting with her talking to her her, feeding her, loving her despite the fact she no longer knew him.
As I look back on his commitment I feel privileged to have known him and to realise that there are everyday heroes of faithfulness and love who teach us the meaning of God's love.
These are people who rarely get recognised, nor mentioned for what they do, but people who inspire me to know that God is like this man who would, despite the frailty of age, catch multiple buses to sit with his wife in love and concern even though she failed to recognise him.
This the God who gives so much to come alongside us in Jesus even when we fail to recognise that God is closer to us than breathing.
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