For God so loved the world…John 3:16

It is our first Christmas dinner as a married couple…

My wife and I review our check-list:

• Turkey in the oven?  Check.

• Potatoes cooking on the top of the stove?  Check.

• Side dishes in the oven with the turkey?  Check.

• 3 hour timer set for the turkey?  Check.

The whole family is headed to our house for Christmas dinner.

No pressure at all.

Everybody is in the kitchen, talking and laughing when the timer goes off…

“I’m hungry!” someone shouts.

“Let’s see that turkey!”

Conversation stops…

Everyone watches as I walk toward the oven door.

“Funny,”  I think…

Shouldn’t  I smell the wonderful aroma of the turkey?

Shouldn’t I feel the warmth of the oven as I walk toward it?

Shouldn’t I hear the slight hum of the oven fan?

I probably would have smelled the turkey…

Felt the warmth and heard the fan, if only….

If only I had turned on the oven…

I hesitate a moment, then open the oven door…

There it sits for all to see…

A raw, cold, completely uncooked turkey like the one in the picture above…

There is a moment of silence…

Silence caused by shock…

Silence caused by hunger…

“Dinner is ruined,” I think.

Then someone laughs…

Soon everybody in the room is laughing.

Dinner is very late that night.

I don’t remember how the turkey tasted….

But I do remember the laughter and the conversations…

 And the love from which they flowed.

Waiting for the turkey proved the truth of one Bible verse…

 Love is patient… 1 Corinthians 13:4

And called to mind another…

…keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.  1 Peter 4:8

That Christmas Day…

I learned a lesson about the importance of love…

I learned only love matters …

…faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.  1 Corinthians 13:13 

Only love matters …

Especially on Christmas…

A day when we honor a God who set aside everything but love…

To give us the greatest gift ever…

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16

 Note: An original version of this post was published in December, 2013