Love That Transforms

April 16

A loving heart is the truest wisdom. ~Charles Dickens

The longer we ponder that statement from Charles Dickens, the more convinced we will become that he is absolutely correct. Essentially, he is combining the characteristics that most distinguish God when he incorporates those two concepts. Our Almighty Father in Heaven is both loving and wise. It seems that in employing the one, He is manifesting the other.

To be wise is to possess knowledge that goes beyond the accumulated gathering of information and to evidence an insight that instructs one in how to utilize knowledge to the optimum advantage. To bathe that wisdom in love is to assure that it will be an instrument of great benefit to everyone it touches, for we know that love of itself is said to, “…cover a multitude of sins,” I Peter 4:8.

Indeed, these qualities manifest the heart of God—He, in His matchless counsel, the Bible, instructs man as to how to transform the wisdom of the ages that springs eternal from His mind into a tool that enables His child to fashion a life of dignity and compassion and accomplishment and worth.

Because it is wrapped in the cocoon of His love, it is a place where the child of God can grow and mature into a being who reflects not only his own ability to employ the gifts he has been given but reflects the compassionate and loving heart of the Savior whose mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22, 23).

As we awaken to a new day, may we become even more acutely aware of the power of wisdom and love in and through us today. May it become ever more incumbent upon us to draw on our Father's wisdom of the ages and to use it to enlighten those around us to the love He has for them (Matthew 5:16).

May we become ever more attuned to the power of love to transform circumstances and people--much as a jeweler uses his tools to hone and polish the gems he is transforming from their raw state into their glorious radiance, may we use love to hone and polish the character of those within our sphere of influence to the gleaming surface that can unobtrusively reflect the glory of Jesus.