One Single Solitary...
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
The first Valentine's Day of my married life, 44 years ago, my husband presented me with a single red silk rose to me in a silver plastic vase. Then he said, "Now you can pull this out every year." And I do.
That single solitary rose represents the steadfast love this man has had for me no matter what crossed our paths. I'm sure there have been many a day he'd like to check out on the responsibility of being my husband, but so far he hasn't. Thank You, Jesus.
In 1926 Dr. James Allan Francis gave a sermon from which this essay, known as "One Solitary Life", was adapted. It talks about the most amazing, steadfast love any of us have every known. The love of Jesus.
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19
"Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself...
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.
I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life."
The Song
"The Love of Jesus" Mack Brock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfWSk9xu1aw
