Love that Rides Trains

⁴ "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.^{[a] 5} Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." 

From the beginning of time, God has showed us love. 

Love showed itself in the deliberate acts at creation.

Love showed itself in the plan known, before time began.

Love showed itself in the unfolding of time.

From the beginning of time, God has showed us love.

Yet. 

We fell into sin. We denied that someone could love us like God could love us. 

And so, throughout scripture, God tries to break in. God tries to tell us. And God tries to tell us how to love him back. 

In this season of Easter, we remember the love that ultimately broke in. And it is this love that we need to bind on our hearts. We need to write this love on our doorposts. We need to talk about it and ultimately, we need to live this love out. We need to love as God loved us.

But how do we tie this love on our hands? How do we write it on our foreheads?

My grandpa tells a story every year on their wedding anniversary. It is a story that I will never forget. As a World War 2 veteran, he doesn't tell too many stories from his time in Europe. This story isn't one of battles. It is one of selfless love.

While serving in Europe, he was granted a time of leave. And so he decided to travel to the Netherlands to see his grandparents, who he had met only once before, at age 6. 

But this was no ordinary train ride. At one stop a young woman got on the train and sat down next to my grandpa. When a soldier came around to check identification, she did not have any--and in this case, my grandpa inferred that she was most likely Jewish. 

And while many might have fled from being associated with a Jew while traveling in Nazi occupied territory, my grandpa said confidently to the questioning officer, "She's my wife." And from that point on, my grandpa has called this lady, whose name my grandpa never learned, as his first wife. 

What my grandpa did that day was lie to the soldier on that train. And in doing so, he saved this stranger's life that day. Without saying anything, he showed everyone what it meant to live out of God's love, even if that meant that he would lose his life. 

This story is one of a handful my grandpa can tell from those years. And it is a story that should live. 

Without thinking about it, my grandpa talked about God's love as he rode the train that day. 

From the beginning of time, God showed his love.

And he calls us to love in return. 

Love that permeates every ounce of our being.  

Love that defines who we are. 

Love that shows in the most miraculous places.