“No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12 ESV)
REFLECTION
While living in South Africa, the late great John Whiffen invited me to a special Toastmasters event. When I arrived I was welcomed by a kindly man in a wheelchair. Isn’t that nice, that disabled people are invited too, I thought. I then went searching for John. As I explored the building, I saw a group of disabled people practicing speeches and it became increasingly clear that I was at a Toastmasters charity event and that the building was actually a home for the disabled. Then I found John. He was in a small dimly lit room, unseen by those who praise his polished prose, with a distraught disabled young woman, who was bound to a clinical contraption that looked something like a bed. There was an authoritative yet gentle, melodic quality to John’s voice as his large strong hands gently held her raven haired head. Her reed thin fingers found his and her eyes overflowed with pain as her cries pierced the air. Heaven must have heard, because a visible calm suddenly came over her broken body and she eased into sleep. I stood transfixed — never before had I seen anything quite so beautiful. John looked up and saw me — the bright light of compassionate love shining through the windows of his soul.
PRAYER POEM: Low
Lord, may Your love move us to go low, our hearts humble and inclined to grow in the glow of grace, in our assigned place. Keep us near and You, our Sovereign Saviour, revere. May Your beauty blaze within us and amaze us as we are readied to run, oh Holy One.
