August 12 - Like a Magnet
August 12
Like a Magnet
Bible Reading: Galatians 5:13-15
13For you, dear friends, have been called to live in freedom--not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve one another in love. 14For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!
A LONG TIME ago there was a little boy who worked for a blacksmith in his shop. The blacksmith was a hard man, who kept his shop very clean.
One day the boy's boss gave him a large box of metal shavings. He told the boy to carry the box to the forge, the great fireplace where the man melted and banged out various metal tools and ornaments. The boy obeyed, but on the way he suddenly slipped on the cobblestone floor. The box flew out of his hands and metal shavings spilled onto the floor.
"Oh no!" the boy said. "What am I going to do now?" He had to clean up the mess quickly or the blacksmith would be angry at him for his clumsiness. He fell to his knees and tried to pick up the sharp metal shavings by hand, but they cut his fingers and made them bleed. He ran to get the broom but then realized that the broom would do him no good. Many tiny shavings had fallen between the bricks on the floor and could not be swept up with a broom.
"What am I going to do?" he repeated.
What would you do? You couldn't pick them up by hand. You couldn't sweep them up with a broom. A vacuum cleaner would suck them up into a bag of dust, not into the blacksmith's box. You would probably do the same thing the boy did. He searched and searched until he finally found what he neede--a magnet! The magnet attracted all the tiny shavings that lay on the bricks and between the bricks, lifting them off the floor and into the blacksmith's box.
Did you know that true Christian love has a similar property? Oh, it won't lift metal shavings off a blacksmith's floor. But it will attract loving attitudes and actions like a magnet attracts metal. When you love others, you get love back. True Christian love will act as a magnet, bringing more and more love into your life. The Bible is filled with stories that reveal this property of love, stories of Boaz's love for Ruth, Jesus' love for Lazarus, Paul's love for Timothy.
Hatred and cruelty will repel others and bring misery, but love attracts love the way a magnet attracts metal.
REFLECT: How is true Christian love like a magnet? Whom have you been loving with true Christian love? Whom have you not been loving as you should? What can you do today to show true Christian love to others?
ACT: If possible, keep a magnet in your pocket or purse this week to remind you that hatred invites hatred, but love attracts love.
PRAY: "Heavenly Father, help me to see--and experience--the advantages of acting in love toward others."