Love is Eternal
Written by Wendy Neill
I remember the “Aha” moment. I wrote it in the margins of my Bible beside 1 Corinthians 13:13. It was September of 1998 and Brother Ira Edwards was teaching Bible class in Delta, Colorado. I was a mother of a one year old, so I was probably struggling to stay awake, but Brother Ira was a wise teacher and I enjoyed hearing what he had to say.
1 Corinthians 13:13 says “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” There are a lot of reasons love might be considered the greatest (and Michelle has provided us with a great list in her recent post). But the reason Brother Ira pointed out that day really spoke to me. He said, “Love is the only one of the three that is eternal. In heaven, there will be no more need for faith and hope.” Wow. Have you ever thought about that? When we get to heaven, we will be face-to-face with God who IS love. We will no longer need faith, because our faith will be replaced by sight. We will no longer need hope, because all of our hopes will be fulfilled. But his love for us will last forever and we will soak it up like a warm bath.
I wrote a blog post here last year about my friend, Effie. This year, Effie went home to the Lord. I miss her, but it is a thrill for me to think that she no longer needs faith and hope, because she is in the presence of Love. And so is Brother Ira. And so I will be someday.