And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Colossians 3:14 (NIV)
Love Over the Top
Every other week the van parks in the same spot in the village, and by four o’clock there’s a line at the side window: a boy who reads only about sharks, his sister who reads nothing and comes anyway, a man who brings everything back late, and a woman who can’t manage the step and has her books brought down to her.
Paul gives the Colossians a list to put on: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. He asks them to bear with each other and to forgive whatever grievance they’re holding, and a grievance like that goes deepest among people who are stuck with each other. Then he tells them to put love on over all of it, because love binds them all together in perfect unity.
The librarian knows which one wants to talk and which one wants to be out of there. She keeps the boy’s shark book behind the counter so it doesn’t go out to anybody else, and she’s quit mentioning the late fees, because mentioning them never once got a book back sooner. She likes these people, and they can tell.
You can be kind to somebody you’ve quit liking, and keep it up. The compassion still works and the patience still holds, and the one on the other side of the window can generally tell what’s missing. They couldn’t say what it is, and they’d be wrong about half of what they guessed. Paul asks for the whole outfit, and the love goes on last, over the top of everything else, holding it in one piece.
The van pulls out, and the boy is already reading on the walk home. What have you got on with nothing over the top of it?
A Prayer to Remember
If there’s a name in our heads right now, Lord, of a person we’re being decent to and have stopped loving, we’re asking about that one. We can hold the decency together and you can still see what’s under it. Put the love back on us before the patience wears through.
In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
