February 23. Love is the Greatest.

February 23. Love is the Greatest.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

For those of you who know me personally at all, you know that I am completely and utterly in love with a new little cat that came into my life last October.  He showed up at my back door mewing and begging to be let in out of the cold and that’s just what I did.  This little guy – TB (sometimes it means The Beast) – has been a wonderful addition to my life.

But on days like today, I find myself resisting the urge to toss him back out the door and slamming it behind him.  Within the space of just a few minutes, he has bitten my hand, knocked over my filtered water container, tossed things off the dining room table, forced me to put my book and highlighter down (because he refuses to quit pawing at them), nearly pulled my monitor cable out of the computer (he did manage to turn the monitor pink, though), knocked my telephone over, pushed prints off the wall behind me, jumped up on the bookshelf and knocked books over, pulled Kleenexes out of the box, knocked over my pencil/pen holder and forced me to spank him and yell at him!

I might have cried once in the middle of that.

Several times during the day, this adorable cat turns into a terror.  The fact that most of my table tops are cleared of stuff and that I have remnants of bite marks on my hands and forearms is proof of that.

Through it all, though, I love him. Even when I’m so angry I cry, I fill his water and food and clean his litterbox. I toss toys for him to play and arrange blankets on the table beside me so that he can curl up next to me. I lift the blankets at night so that he can crawl to the bottom of the bed and feel safe and warm.  I tell him that he’s a good boy (when he is) and how much I love him. Because I do.

God taught us how to love.  It’s the only thing that really matters.  When Jesus was asked which was the greatest of the ten commandments, He didn’t hesitate.  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.  And the second is like the first, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

When I list the things that TB does to make me crazy, it seems a paltry account of wrongdoings in comparison to the things I do which break God’s heart. But, through it all, He loves me.

It is because of His love for me that I am able to love.

It is because of His great love for you that you are able to love.

We love because He first loved us.  His love never ceases.  Ours need never end either.

Through it all … He loves us.