The Lesson of Love -- Sandy Winn

Yesterday I lost a dear friend.  This special woman was in my life for 28 years.  Death tends to make us reflect on life.  What was this person's life all about?  What did they mean to me?  Are there any lessons, any takeaways, for me to apply?

My special friend had many talents, but her best talent was loving people well.  She made me feel I was worth her time.  She made herself available when I needed counsel or just needed a smile and a hug.  And what's more -- she did this for everyone she knew.  Imagine it -- a person who makes every other person feel they are her favorite!

Today there are thousands of people grieving because she is suddenly gone from us.  They are posting amazing tributes on her Facebook page.  There are dozens of pictures of her standing next to a friend and smiling -- as if each friend now treasures the fact that she especially loved them.

But amidst this grief there is also joy.  Feeling loved makes our hearts rejoice. The Scripture instructs us to "love each other deeply."  When we do that, opening our hearts and homes -- as Sandy did -- we empower others to love as well.

Sandy Winn has helped each of us to love well.  

Lorraine Mahan
10-28-2016

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms."
1 Peter 4:8-10

THE SEVENTH WORD FROM THE CROSS

THE SEVENTH WORD
Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Gospel of Luke 23:46

The seventh word of Jesus is from the Gospel of Luke, and is directed to the Father in heaven, just before He dies. Jesus recalls Psalm 31:5 - "Into thy hands I commend my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God." Luke repeatedly pleads Jesus' innocence: with Pilate (Luke 23:4, 14-15, 22), through Dismas (by legend), the criminal (Luke 23:41), and immediately after His death with the centurion" "Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, "Certainly this man was innocent" (Luke 23:47).

Jesus was obedient to His Father to the end, and his final word before his death on the Cross was a prayer to His Father.

The relationship of Jesus to the Father is revealed in the Gospel of John, for He remarked, "The Father and I are one" (10:30), and again, at the Last Supper: "Do you not believe I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works" (14:10). And He can return: "I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father" (16:28). Jesus fulfills His own mission and that of His Father on the Cross:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
So that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16

Source: http://www.jesuschristsavior.net/Words.html