Love covers
William Henry Davies writes,
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
He encourages us to stop and think about the beauty that surrounds us in the world, to stand and stare. It’s worldly wisdom, but there’s wisdom in it nonetheless. Perhaps we’re all too busy or too preoccupied with schedules and deadlines to stand and stare. Perhaps we’re too cynical to think that there’s much beauty left in this fallen world to actually stand and stare at. But it might do us all good, if even for a moment, we would stop and look for the beauty that remains to be seen.
The Scriptures command us to stand and stare at something of far greater beauty, something that is truly amazing to behold, something that will truly lift us from cynicism and despondency – if we’d only stop jumping from one activity to another and take the time to stand and stare at it.
1 John 3:1, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” Stand and stare at the love of God! “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).
Christian, you are loved with an everlasting love! With love divine, all loves excelling! Come to Calvary and stand and stare.
The love of God in Jesus Christ forgives you all your sin. The love of God declares you righteous in His sight. The love of God adopts you into His family. The love of God lifts you from the miry clay of sin and sets your life upon solid rock; you are saved from hell and are destined for the glory of heaven. Stand and stare, behold, be amazed at how you are loved… and rejoice!
Rejoice like Isaiah rejoiced in Isaiah 61:10 “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” Stand and stare at how you look in Christ.
You might not always like what you see when you look in the mirror, but when we stand and stare at the covering that God has provided for us in Jesus, we stare at something made beautiful; bedecked and adorned and pleasing unto God. You are clothed, you are covered with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We get a picture of that covering in Genesis 3:21 just after Adam and Eve sinned. After God promised to send the Saviour, there we read “Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.”
He covered their nakedness and shame. In love He covered them.
“True godly love is willing to cover over another’s shame; and we all have shame. We have sinned against God and against one another, but just as God’s love covers all our sins; we in turn are to cover the sins of one another. ”
This covering love is something that every believer is called to show to others. We are called to love our neighbour as ourself, and even called to love our enemies.
In Paul’s great description of love in 1 Corinthians 13, this idea of covering comes up again in the phrase: “love bears all things.” Literally he says: “love covers all things.”
So it is, true godly love is willing to cover over another’s shame; and we all have shame. We all have faults and failings that we’d rather not have exposed or dragged up. We have sinned against God and against one another, but just as God’s love covers all our sins; we in turn are to cover the sins of one another.
In love, we must be disposed to hide or conceal the faults and imperfections of others rather than publish them abroad or to store them away as leverage in some future argument. Love is willing to conceal the shame of others.
Of course there may be offenses that must be reported to the proper authorities, and there are cases where we must be willing to testify so that justice can be done. But “love covers all things” gets to the heart of our whole disposition towards others, including others who have wronged us personally.
Just as we are glad that others are not publishing our shame, let us be willing to cover others. We live in a culture where people actively dig for dirt on others, but this love of God dictates that we swim against the tide and refuse to “dish the dirt.”
This love which “covers all things” is of course wide open to abuse, but that is the nature of love, it always leaves us vulnerable to one another. This love is not easy, but when you’re tempted to uncover the faults of another just to bring them down a peg or two; stop and remember that all your sins are only covered by the blood of Christ.
