“…the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13
“Happy Birthday!”
My wife hands me a card…
It talks about the day we married…
About the years since, in which we have discovered the real meaning of love…
“This is a great birthday card,” I say.
“It’d make a great anniversary card, too,” I think to myself.
I open the card …
In big letters, it says…
“Happy Anniversary!”
Smiling, I hand the open card to my wife….
She laughs…
“I looked a long time for a card that said what I felt. Guess I should have looked at the inside, too.”
My cell phone rings…
My daughter and almost three year-old granddaughter want to do a birthday FaceTime.
“Come over this weekend,” my daughter says. “We’ll celebrate your birthday!”
An hour later, my daughter calls again…
“Will you talk with your granddaughter?” she asks.
“She won’t go to bed because she thinks you’re coming over tonight for your party and she wants to make birthday presents before you get here.”
My granddaughter is tired. She’s crying…
I assure her I am on my way to bed and she can go to bed, too.
That night, when I actually do go to bed, there’s a card on my pillow.
There’s no doubt this one is a birthday card…
It says “Happy Birthday!” four times on the outside.
Yet it is the first card I will remember…
I will remember it because it was bought with love…
Just as I will remember a sleepy three year-old trying to stay awake to make birthday presents…
Years from now, the only birthday gift I will remember from this day will be love…
Love that bought the card…
Love that kept a sleepy three-year-old from going to bed…
It is love I will remember, because love matters most…
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13
