I Love You and Always Will

If nobody told you today, I love you

Remember that God loves you and always will.

I love you and always will.

May you leave here and act on that love.

In August I began to say this new benediction at the end of our service. It reminds me of the way a minister friend of mine always ended her service. She would say, “God love you now act like it.” So when I was listening to NPR a story from the Ted Radio Hour (August 11, 2017) came on about education. Linda Cliatt-Waymen is a principle of an inner city school in Philadelphia. Before she arrived, her school was known for drugs, weapons, and assaults. These were kids who came with a lot of challenges – homelessness, not having a meal to eat, living with several families in one house. She would sit and listen to them, cry with them, hug them, and ask them now what will they do. She looked at these children and tried to see their possibility, to see what they can become.

She said:

“I would get on the PA every morning and every afternoon before my students went home. I would end and I would begin every message the same way – if nobody didn’t tell you they love you today, you remember I do and I always will.”

“Believe it or not, a majority of my students do not even live with a mother or father. A lot of these students just don't feel loved. And that is a reason why I found it to be very, very important for me to tell them every day, if nobody did not love you, I do. And I remember I got a letter from one of my students who went to prison and one who was giving me a college graduation invitation on the same day that ended the same way - Ms. Wayman, if nobody didn't tell you I love you today, you remember I do, and I always will.

So I know it's important. I know it's important how every child needs to be loved, and every child needs to hear from someone, I love you. I don't know any other way to get through to them, or to make it possible in their eyes to do better for themselves without me telling them that I love them and I believe in them. I've never found another way to do it. “

This story struck a chord in me. How many of us live alone and have no one who says I love you? How many of us come from families that don’t share our feelings? How many of us need to hear that no matter what we are loved? When I started preaching a very outspoken woman came up to me and said to me, “the most powerful sermon I ever heard preached was when the pastor shared that God loved me. I don’t remember the pastor, I don’t remember the rest of the sermon, but I will never forget that God loves me.“

In John 13:34-35 Jesus says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” So if I nobody told you today, I love you, remember that God loves you and always will, I love and always will.