President JOHN UPTON
from the All that Will Endure
One of the surprises I have had as president of the Baptist World Alliance® over the past three years has been
the number of weddings I have had the privilege of attending on my trips. I have attended a wedding in Cana, two in Africa, two in China, Malaysia and one in Nicaragua. In several of these weddings I had the privilege of presiding over the wedding and in others was able to lift a blessing on behalf of the couple. The brides were all beautiful and their eyes sparkled with joy in their beautiful tribal dresses. The grooms were handsome with smirks of delight at their good fortune. One of the things that surprised me, though in hindsight it probably shouldn’t have, was that in each wedding I Corinthians 13 was read. The “Love Hymn” was always the central scripture around which meditations or readings were made. It has been a long time since I had actually stopped to pay
attention to the words of I Corinthians 13 but after all these readings I heard Paul’s closing words in the hymn anew. He said that we have “faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” Let me say once again where I was when I heard these words read at the weddings. I was in Cana for example. It was a Baptist wedding and the service was conducted in Arabic. It was a Palestinian wedding in a country where racial prejudice is high and Baptists are not even legally recognized. And they said, “… the greatest of these is love.”
I was in Africa and both couples lived in a mud hut with no
electricity, no running water, and no sanitary plumbing. And they read aloud with bright smiles that challenged the African sun itself, “Faith, hope, and love … the greatest of these is love.” In Malaysia the young bride had arrived in the country as a refugee from a warring country. Soon after arriving she discovered she was very ill and almost died. The local Baptist church had discovered her need and helped her. Through the Baptist church she found friends, help and the love of her life. And she said for all the attendees to hear, “… and the greatest of these is love.” In China the couples were married as Christians but none of their families and friends attending were Christians. Family and friends did not understand the concept of weddings based on love, much less commitments made through vows to an invisible God. Yet, they heard the couples say, “… and the greatest of these is love.”
I found myself asking, “Why is love the greatest of the three?”
Then I remembered all the times I had arrived at an airport and saw a sight I enjoy seeing every time. It was ordinary people finding each other here, embracing each other there. They were the young, the old, parents, children, couples and friends all
laughing, crying, talking, hugging. Whatever might have been on my mind at the time I had to always stop and smile. I think maybe our welcome to heaven just might be like that. I guess in the end it really is only love that remains.
The general opinion is that we live in a world of hatred and greed but I don’t see that. Sure, hatred and greed are there as a big part of our world and it is real. It just seems to me though, that love is also everywhere. Often it is not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it is there. When you and I are gone do we really want to be remembered most for our achievements or do we want, most of all, to have left a legacy of love?
I have been reminded that there will come
a time when all reasons and need of faith will fall away and hope will lay down to sleep beneath whatever fulfillments we have been given and love alone will
prevail. When
everything else has fallen away love alone will shine and will shine all the brighter, for the very face of God is love. And we, who behold it, will shine even in the midst of racial prejudice, oppression, religious persecution, war, and poverty. And it will be true … “the
greatest of these is love.”
JULY/SEPTEMBER 2013
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