The Love of a Fathers Son

Todays devotional verse that I studied was 1 John 5:12

1 John 5:12

“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”

King James Version (KJV)

This verse  brought back memories of my home town and a wealthy family that lived there. The family loved life and one of the passions was books. Inside the large house was a rather large library that the family loved. The family would travel and collect books, this was before the day of online shopping. They would look high and low for books that were highly collectible. As the family grew the children would take the collection over and the hobby would continue and the collection would grow.

After a bit of time the children became more invested in their own lives. For a while the son seemed to disappear leaving on his journeys and his father would wait for him to return. Then one trip the son left but would never return again. An accident would take his short life and he was greatly missed by not only the family but the entire town. 

The family seemed to become isolated and not seen in the public as much. The light in the house where the library was seemed to never be lit nor was anyone welcome in to go to the library where the cherished books remained. 

As the story goes the master of the house received a guest one day. The young lady that visited told the father of meeting his son. As she spoke she shared her love of books and the conversations that the two would have. She had brought a treasure of her own a book that her own mother had shared with her about the love of a family. 

The book would become a companion for the old man as he read through the pages. The book would help him recall the joys that he had shared with his son and he thought of the people his son must have met along his paths. This helped him to want to learn more of his sons travels and about what others thought so once again he opened his house and the grand library. 

Several years later when I was in my 20s I recall watching that grand house destroyed and tore down. The home that had been a welcoming site was now planed to be a convenient store and parking lot. The house was split so that the it seemed to open displaying the grand library. The books were donated with one small inclusion that the book that the young lady had brought and had made the elderly gentleman think be placed on display so that all could know about the love of a family and thus that of the memory of his son. 

The man did not want to keep the books to himself but wanted to share the love of his son with the world. This is how it is with God's love once we discover it. The power within warms us inside and then we want to share it and pass it on to all those around so that they too will know. The older gentleman thinking that he had lost the love of his son thought his life was over. Realizing that the love of his son was still present made him more aware and want to live. God's love is present in everything that we see if we simply want to take it we can live for eternity and have better life now.

shared here