| Good Morning Everyone, Our theme for this month: “You are loved” Our Bible verse for today: “… but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 (CSB) Our thought for today: “In the end, when all else is gone, there is love.” Wab Kinew is a Canadian Indian. Not an Eskimo but an Indian (similar to a Native American Indian only from Canada). He is a leader among the Aboriginal people of Canada who are commonly referred to as the “First Nations People”. They were the original inhabitants of Canada long before Europeans discovered the place. And like our own Native Americans, for centuries they were dominated, subjugated, and persecuted. Wab’s father, Tobasonakwut Kinew, was sort of the Martin Luther King Jr. of the Canadian Indians and he helped them to make great strides towards gaining equal treatment under the law. Wab had a complicated and difficult relationship with his father. They spent decades struggling to figure each other out and trying to arrive at some sort of a peaceful co-existence. Finally, in his later years, the father was diagnosed with the cancer that would ultimately kill him. Wab then took a two-year sabbatical from his work as political leader, journalist, author, and television personality to help care for his father. It was during those years that father and son finally worked through their issues and developed the close relationship they both had been striving for and which they both wished they’d had for all those other years. After it was all over and the father had died, Wab wrote an autobiographical book about his relationship with his dad with the title “The Reason You Walk”. The premise is that we must continue to walk through all the seasons of life with the ones we love (and with those we’re trying to love) and we should never give up, because love is worth the effort. One of the reasons I was moved by this story is because it so closely resembles my own story with my father. Including the ending. I too had a difficult relationship with my Father. And I too cared for him through the sickness that killed him. He died in my home. And it was during that time that we finally worked out our differences and developed the close relationship we both always wanted. Now, in retrospect, I’m so glad that neither of us ever gave up on the other one. Wab ended his book with reflections about the death scene as his father breathed his last breaths. It occurred to him that as the end approached, all the unimportant and meaningless trappings of life were stripped away. All the accomplishments and awards, all the earthly possessions, the political causes and the social movements, even food and water – none of it mattered much anymore. In the end what was left was love. It was the only thing that really mattered at that point. And then Wab realized that it was the only thing that ever really mattered to begin with. In the end, if you’ve done it right, what remains is love. As we conclude our two-month study about experiencing and embracing and sharing the love of God, it is my prayer for you that your life will be characterized by love – the love of God for you, and the love of God flowing through you for others. In the end, when all else is gone, there is love. God Bless, Pastor Jim |
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