dozens of lovely encounters

The last two weeks has brought over a dozen friends from Pullman through the Bremerton area. Jesus told his disciples, "I call you friends...love each other" (John 15:15). We are not to be scanty with our love. Have you been? Cease to be so scarce! Love outright! Not merely because it is a command ("This is my command: love each other." - John 15:17) but because it is renewing ("love builds up" - 1 Corinthians 8:1). Companionship is often underestimated. I remember reading Leonard Ravenhill comment on how great eagles fly alone and kingly lions hunt alone, but is it good for man to be alone? I talked with a friend the other day as we worked in the kitchen and she told me about her favourite parts of Chronicles of Narnia, since she is in the midst of reading through them again. She is also likes to taste books and talks about them like a gluttonous child might describe a perfectly scrumptious doughnut. One of her choice parts was when Alsan, having discovered Lucy and Susan following him, asked the two girls to put their hand in his great mane so he could feel them beside him as he walked towards the stone table. He laid down life as he walked, bearing even then such an unimaginable weight that his paws barely left the ground as they proceeded toward the climax of law and love. It was a new perspective for me of the last hours of Jesus in the garden. My view up till this point has been that his request of the disciples to stay with him for an hour of prayer was a final word of instruction. I do not think it was a last moment teaching opportunity. He wanted them to be with Him, to share time, knowing that time was short. Do you have time? Do you ever make "sacrifices" for love? What do you love? Who do you love? Do they know?

"The prisoner, the sick, the christian in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian as a physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. Visitor and visited in loneliness recognize in each other the Christ who is present in the body; they receive and meet each other as one meet's the Lord, in reverence, humility, and joy. But if there is so much blessing and joy even in a single encounter of brother with brother, how inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who by God's will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians!" -Dietrich Bonhoeffer