Words from 1 John 4

I am in Boston today (12 July 2011) for a memorial service for Jim Leck, my nephew, and this is what I will read at his service.
by Charlie Leck

The disciples of Jesus – the men who walked the earth with him – must have been stunned and confused after his death. They were anxious to explain their loyalty to this man and how extraordinary he had been. They also wanted to explain what he had been trying to teach them about God and their personal relationship to the Creator.

When I think of Jim, I immediately think of the letters of John in the New Testament and how John defines and describes God. I promise you, it works for Jim and he’d be nodding his head as I read these words.

“Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love / does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him….”

“If any one says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.”

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So Many Golden Days

A marriage of 50 years is not a common, ordinary achievement!
by Charlie Leck

My brother, John, and his wife, Mary Jane, are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary today. My, oh my! Though we can't be with them in Florida for the big day, I send along these words of love and congratulation.

Dearest brother and lovely Mary Jane, Anne and I want you to know that we will be thinking of you on this immense day of celebration and jubilation. Your incredible achievement does not go unnoticed by us, but, quite the contrary, is an absolute wonder that is regularly on our minds. To reach the fifty year mark in a marriage is not an ordinary or common thing. That you have done this is to be celebrated in great earnestness and you both are to be congratulated in an extraordinary manner – especially you, dear Mary Jane, for managing to put up with a Leck boy with such graciousness and so tenderly (it proves you are a remarkable actress among your other so admirable traits).

Fifty years! My goodness. It does not seem so. How quickly the days have slid by. How many times does that mean the sun has raced across the sky, from Atlantic to Pacific, within the seasons of your marriage? Though you may not want to hear the number, it has happened 18,263 times (including leap years). Among those thousands of times were many stunning risings of the bright, golden globe in our East and as many settings in the West more splendid than the world’s finest artists could ever capture on a canvass. Golden mornings! Golden evenings! Through all of them, your love for each other has endured the natural tests to which every single marriage is and must be put; and you have not only survived them all, but you have passed each trial with such grace that you have set a wondrous example for your children, grandchildren and for all of us who know and love you.

And now, on this Golden day of celebration, we congratulate you with hoorahs and ovations of joy and happiness and pray that there will be many more golden risings and settings of the sun for you to enjoy together in love. And, as part of this celebration we send out our love to you both – forever!

Anne and Charlie

I hope their day with family and friends is an extraordinary one, indeed!