Yesterday I had the opportunity to eat Chinese food with two of my favorite people. For us, as I’m sure it is with many others, fortune cookies provide eagerly awaited fun at the end of the Chinese dining experience. We each choose our own cookies – no one else can choose one for you, of course– and we read our “fortunes” aloud. Each recitation is followed by a chorus of “hmmm” and “aha” and “oooh, now that’s interesting” …and then move on to whatever is next on the agenda for the day and our “fortunes” are quickly forgotten.Not so with my fortune cookie message yesterday. It was not quickly forgotten. In fact, my mind has been mulling it over from the moment I cracked open the crunchy, sweet crescent and saw a single word written on the slip of paper inside.
Love.
“How ironic, since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day,” I thought. But there was more to it. I knew it. We have been covering all kinds of love lessons at church lately: God’s love for us, our love for God, love for neighbors, love for family, love yourself, love the unlovable, speak in love, act in love…This word and its meaning has been taking up a lot of my brain space lately and here it was again.
I was confident this was no coincidence.
Now, with today being Valentine’s Day and finances being especially tight, I decided to do something nice for my precious husband since we couldn’t really afford to exchange gifts this year. I know that he enjoys coming home to an organized, clean home. Admittedly, this is something that does not happen very often due to my work schedules, various projects, kids and my general lack of motivation to do anything as mundane as cleaning. But, today was different. The clean house was a gift for my husband, whom I love dearly. The picking up and straightening and dusting and cleaning were easy and- dare I say - fun! Then came the vacuuming - the only part of cleaning that I really like because it gives my mind a chance to wander wherever it chooses.
My vacuumusing mind settled on this word “Love” and all that it involves. I noticed that the cleaning tasks I had been doing took on a completely different feel because I had been doing them in love, not because I “had to” or “should” or they just needed to be done. I was acting in love and so my attitude toward the tasks had been changed, my burden had been changed, I had been changed.
It hit me that God gave me the command in 1Corinthians 16:14 – Do everything in love – not necessarily to bless others in my life, but to provide a blessing for me…because HE LOVES ME. With this command comes freedom from the oppression of thinking “you owe me” or “I’m not appreciated” and it lifts the burden of never-ending to-do lists. I believe wholeheartedly that adhering to this command will fill my life with the joy and overwhelming sense of purpose that God intended.
Love.
