let love cover (part 1 of 4)

                                                         
                                                              LET LOVE COVER
                                                                the miracle of love
    It wasn’t a fast pace by any calculation but rather uneventful and boring.  There were not any perceived dangers but my mind was still twisted and contorted by the events of the prior day and somehow I just slammed into his rear bumper.  It seems impossible that I could have been so aloof.  His car was pretty and expensive and it looked very new so certainly he would ask me where in the hell my brain had been and he would have had every right to be disgruntled by my senseless lack of attention and the untimely disruption during his morning commute.  He got out of his car as I fearfully anticipated some nasty remark about women drivers, but instead he looked at his bumper and then asked me if I was okay.  I let him know how sorry I was and then the unthinkable happened.  This tall, very physically fit and beautifully dressed black man looked at me and said “I’m just glad you are okay.  Don’t worry about my bumper”.  He got in his car and drove away.  Maybe it didn’t occur to him in that moment that he loved me, but he did, and I felt it.  He loved me by not getting angry and by not placing the appearance of his car over the condition of another human person.  He loved me by letting his tender heart cover a multitude of wrongs that day.  And he didn’t just love … he loved deeply, allowing the love in his heart to interrupt a collision.
    The day before had been September 11, 2001, the day that evil overwhelmed and succeeded in shaking and rattling America as we knew it.  I believe in the moment that I plowed into the back of his shiny car, that sweet man realized that there was something bigger than he or I causing commotion in the world.  He knew I had been shaken too.  He knew that shiny metal and fancy chrome emblems had little value in comparison to the value of the love our world so desperately needed.  In that moment he gave me what the whole planet craves; grace, a do-over, forgiveness and a hope for redemption.  In every way, he interrupted the standard. The day before 9/11, he might have been angry and responded very differently to me, but on the day after he had an entirely different perspective; a perspective we all need from time to time.  Love is a miracle just waiting to happen and who doesn’t need a miracle?  Jesus has this perspective of us and we need to know it.  He loves us just as much the day after our collisions as he did the day before.  He knows what is going to hit us even when we don’t see it coming and He is prepared for every crash and burn.
“The end of all things is near.  Therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.  Above all, love each other deeply because love covers a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.”  1 Peter 4:7-9. Wow. Love covers a multitude of sins! Do you know what I think might be going on here?  If we are supposed to love deeply and not grumble because love alone can conquer sin, then I just bet we are exposing a multitude of sins every time we get upset or angry.  If love covers then anything less must reveal, or worse, expose a multitude of sins.  Just maybe that is the miracle of love.