“Put On Love.” These three words are hanging in frames on my wall in my bedroom. Attached to the frames are pictures taped to strings of family, friends and places that are near and dear to my heart. I look at them every single day. What do these words mean? I hung them up for a reason, right? But why? I chose to have pictures of the people and places closest to me hanging right below these words, so they must be pretty important.
I had this vision for my room for a little while and it took a little time to figure out what three words to put in those frames. I was going to be cliché and do something like “Faith, Hope, Love”, which are great but I wanted something different, and then God spoke to my heart. It was in group bible study. I was tired, kind of drifting off into something else and then something caught my attention, I heard someone say, “…put on love…”. I sat up and looked down at my bible, frantically trying to find the verse we were reading (whoops). All of sudden those three words shot out at me and I found the verse I so desperately wanted to read, “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:14). I immediately knew what I wanted to put up on my wall. I underlined those words in my bible and prayed with them for a little while, trying to figure out what exactly putting on love might look like. The conclusion I came to seemed simple: strive to live as Jesus lived because God is love and Jesus is God. Jesus' life was filled with love. He is love.
It’s a pretty popular concept. I hear it all the time. But clearly it’s not always easy. We are human. We mess up. We don’t always put on love. If we did, then everything would be perfect and harmony would always exist in our lives, but it doesn’t. However, it’s something to strive for. We are never going to be perfect. We are not always going to make the right choices. But we can strive to put on love. To love everyone we encounter. To show love to everyone we encounter. This will bring harmony into our lives and the lives of others.
I think I put those words on my wall because God was trying to tell me that I need to work on this, and He told me just how I can do that. By hanging those pictures of the people and places closest to me under those words, I am constantly reminded of the countless examples I have in my life of how to put on love. My family and friends continue to show me every day what putting on love looks like. The places I have been remind me of God’s beautiful creation and how I cannot possibly put on love without God walking with me in every single moment of my life. When put together, these three little words bring a whole new meaning to life. They remind us that we are striving to show others Christ’s love every single day. The best part of it all? We are never alone. And if you ever forget that, just one look at the cross should refresh your memory. Put. On. Love.
