I saw love this week. Love in action, demonstrating
its true definition.
Love is patient and kind
I was
sick at the beginning of the week. The gross, ugly kind of sick that nobody
wants to be around. My husband, Nathanael, took care of me with such patience
and kindness I almost wanted to cry with gratefulness. He brought me things
to drink, to try to eat, and medicine to take; he went to the store and bought
possibly all of the Gatorade and Powerade on the shelves; he said yes to my
crazy requests without hesitation, such as making up a very comfy bed for me on
the bathroom floor so that I wouldn’t have to move much.
Love bears all things and endures all things
Wherever
he was in the house, as soon as he heard me start retching in the bathroom he
would come stand next to me and rub my back. Rather than spare himself the repulsive
assault on his senses, he chose to do whatever he could to try to make me feel
better. I still felt sick and awful, but I felt so loved.
Love is not arrogant or rude.
When I
started getting dizzy either from dehydration or my heart racing from anxiety,
he decided to take me to the ER to get some fluids and medicine in me since my
stomach refused to let these things take up residence. As soon as we walked in
the doors of the hospital I sat down and threw up in the bathroom trash can we’d
brought with us. He sat with me in my humble state and waited for me to be
ready to move again. He showed no signs of mortification at how gross I was in
public. Without being asked, he carried the offensive bucket around until there
was a place to clean it out.
Love is not irritable or resentful; Love does not
insist on its own way
We got
to the ER around 11pm. We were there until about 2:15am. He had to be at work
the next morning by 8:30, but he didn’t complain about being up so late a
single time. At one point when I asked what time it was, he said, “Don’t worry
about it.” He wasn’t concerned for himself and his need to sleep at all.
When I
was cold he took off his sweatshirt and added it on top of my blanket. When I
was still cold he balanced himself lying next to me as well as he could on the
narrow hospital bed to try to warm me up. I doubt he was able to rest like
that, but he never complained.
Love never ends.
Even
when Nathanael also became sick early Monday morning and it was me trying to
take care of him, he never stopped showing concern for how I felt. While we
napped the day away, if I got out of bed or moved around a lot he would
immediately wake up and ask, “Are you ok?”
He is so selfless. He is patient
and kind and endures everything with such grace. He is not arrogant or rude or
irritable or resentful. He never insists that things go his way. He loves
whether I deserve it or not. He loves whether I am lovable or not.
I hope I can learn to love as truly as he does.
Verses excerpted from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
This is so, so sweet and incredible of a read. Thanks for posting this Lizi :)
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