Pollen and I are not friends. This time of year, arguably the most beautiful here in the south, has allergies as it’s asterisk. With the perfect daytime temps, flowers galore, and green leaves and grass waking up from their winter siesta, the pollen is the cruel joke of the season. We are lured outside to play, only to succumb to sneezing, wheezing, and that gross nasal product…snot. My nose becomes a chronic leaky faucet. Ya know when you get the drip just outside your nostril on the end of your nose? You just wiped the last one and drat! It’s there again! I have Kleenex in every pocket of every article of clothing that I wear, and a purse full of them, but when I need them, they mock me from some unseen corner, only to reveal themselves in the washing machine and dryer in one million tiny pieces.
Perhaps you have no idea what I’m talking about, and you just think I have turned to a less “refined” blogging style. Bear with me. If you don’t suffer the snot woes, my guess is that you have your version of irritant that shows up unhindered just in time to embarrass you in some way at the exact wrong time. We all do. It’s because no matter how pretty a picture we want to display, real life happens. And it isn’t always what we want people to see.
A friend of mine got married later in life. On the inside of both of their wedding rings they had the phrase engraved, “warts and all”. With all the beauty, there will always be warts. Love doesn’t act like there are no warts; love sees the warts and commits to love in spite of them.
In the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13 is referred to as the “Love Chapter”. This chapter kicks off by stating two things describing real love: “Love is patient, love is kind.” (v.4) We have opportunities to exercise these two remarkable character traits every day – even with ourselves! Often, however, when we aren’t fighting the snot in our own life, we examine and get annoyed with what we see in others.
Next in the Love Chapter comes a list of things that love is NOT: envious, boastful, prideful, disrespectful, selfish, or irritable. “Love takes no pleasure in evil but rejoices in the truth.” (v.6) This list is long, but the wording is intentional – why? Because we deal with opportunities to do the exact opposite of these things every day! We humans have boogers in our lives – and warts – things that trigger us to act and respond with our ugly side.
We aren’t perfect. Nor can we ever be. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”1 God gives us grace, so we ought to give ourselves and others some of the grace we receive! “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!”2 He didn’t wait until we were all spit-shined to rescue us – Jesus reached down and with patience and kindness extricated us from the shame of our imperfect realities. He made a way for His righteousness to cover our UNrighteousness so that we can have a loving relationship with Him! “…and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”3
Pollen happens so snot does too. Shameful irritants and imperfections are reality. Just as I keep tissues close at all times, Jesus promises to always be near. Keep fighting the snot! “[Love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” I Cor 13:7
1 (Romans 3:23)
2 (Romans 5:8 – emphases mine)
3 (Romans 3:24)
