God is Love, a phrase we see everywhere, it is on bumper stickers, t-shirts and coffee mugs. But where does it come from, is it in the Bible? The Bible is full of depictions of God's Love for us, and love was prime subject of Jesus' teachings. Yet nobody dared to say "God is Love" until 1 John 4:8, one of the last Books in the Bible. We too, like all those who wrote before John, fail to acknowledge that true love is God Himself and the ability to love is God's greatest gift to us. We fail in our love because we are selfish, we fail because true love demands sacrifice.
Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. He was in a lot of pain and always complained about all the miseries he had to endure throughout his life. He kept saying that he was done with his horrible life and kept hoping that he would die soon. After a while the men began talking to each other and eventually they talked to each other for hours. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.
Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside. Eventually he stopped complaining, his mind began to get filled with many beautiful memories he had in his lifetime; from the other man’s narration of the world outside, he realized that there is still so much he hasn’t seen. He was able to convince himself that he was going to walk out of that hospital room soon to experience a bit more of that world outside.
The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene. One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn’t hear the band – he could see it. In his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.
Days and weeks passed. One morning, the nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. To his amazement, the window faced a blank wall, there was no view of the park or the lake, nothing except a blank brick wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.
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