Pastor Ralph J. Mineo, St. Luke's Lutheran Church

A mother was very busy. Her four year-old comes up to her and tugs on her mother's leg and says, "I love you, Mommy."

The mother replies, without taking her eyes off her work: "Yes, dear. I love you, too."

The child calls out again: "Mommy!"

"Yes, dear. What do you want?"

"I love you!"

"I know, Honey." Then, with a leap from a chair, the little girl jumps onto her mother, hugging her with every muscle, the little girl says to her astonished mother, "I love you, and I just had to do something about it."

Love does something! Jesus put it this way: "Love one another... just as I have loved you." Love is more way than a feeling. Love is decision! Love is action!

Love is also sacrificial. Love is embracing the cross of Christ. Love isn't always easy. But no matter how difficult love is -- no matter how difficult the Cross is -- the end result of the Cross is always: RESURRECTION, new life, freedom, living in the presence of God (not only in the afterlife -- but NOW!)

This call of Jesus to love one another is a very practical call which is to be part of our daily lives. It really takes DAILY commitment to be a Christian! Jesus gave his life in humility, complete self-denial, and love. Jesus came to be God's love for us -- and he DID something about it! And he asks his followers to follow suit: "Love one another... just as I have loved you."

St. Paul often proclaimed that Christ lives IN the believer. For example, in Galatians 2:20, "it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." In 2 Corinthians 13:5, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?"

Which reminds me... I have one of those bracelets with the initials WWJD which stands for "What would Jesus do?" But I rather think of it in this way: "What WILL Jesus do?" If Jesus, the love of Jesus, is in me, Jesus will DO SOMETHING in the world through me.

So be like that four year-old girl, and do something about the love you have been given. Examine yourself. What will Jesus do today -- through you?