John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his Army uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station. He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn’t: the girl with the rose.
His interest in her had begun thirteen months before in a Florida Library. Taking a book off the shelf, he found himself intrigued, not with the words of the book, but with the notes penciled in the margin. The handwriting revealed a thoughtful soul and an insightful mind. In the front of the book, he discovered the previous owner’s name, Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort he located her address. She now lived in New York City. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to respond. The next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II. During the next year and one month the two grew to know each other through the mail. A romance was budding. Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn’t matter what she looked like.
When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting—7:00 at grand Central Station. “You’ll recognize me,” she wrote, “by the red rose I’ll be wearing on my lapel.” So at 7:00 he was in the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved, but whose face he had never seen. I’ll let Mr. Blanchard tell you what happened next.
“A young woman was coming towards me, her figure long and slim. Her blond hair lay in delicate curls, her eyes were as blue as flowers. Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness, and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive. I started towards her, entirely forgetting that she was not wearing a rose. As I approached, a small smile curved her lips. “Goin’ my way?” she said. I took one step closer to her, and then I saw Miss Hollis Maynell.”
“She was standing almost directly behind the amazing lady in the pale green suit. Standing there with graying hair tucked under a worn hat. She was more than plump, with thick-ankled feet thrust into low-heeled shoes. That lovely girl was walking quickly away. I felt as though I would split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her, and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned me and held me up during the war. And there she stood. Her face was gentle and sensible, her grey eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle. I did not hesitate. My finger gripped the small leather copy of the book that was to identify me to her. This would be something precious, a friendship for which I had been and must be ever grateful. I squared my shoulders, saluted, and held out the book to the woman, even though while I spoke I felt choked by my disappointment. “I’m Lt. John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; May I take you to dinner?”
The woman’s face broadened into a tolerant smile. “II don’t know what this is about, son,” she answered, “but the young lady in the green suit who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!”
One of the biggest tests a Christian has to face is loving a God whose letters we’ve read, whose heart we’ve come to know through those words, but whose face we’ve never seen. The apostle John says it in very plain language today: “This is God’s command: to believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he has commanded us.” It really does come down to this: Love God; love other people, and just like our opening story about John Blanchard and Hollis Maynell, God is going to test our love for him. How’s He going to do that? It’s simple. He’s going to observe how we love other people. He’s going to watch how we treat people. He’s going to see how we forgive people…or not. So be honest: Is love for God and love for the people in your life your number one priority? Or, if the evidence were examined, would it be clear that you really love yourself most of all, and are ultimately concerned with your success, your pleasure, your happiness?
If I’m stepping on your toes with these questions, you should know I’m stepping on my own as I ask them. If the command to love God first and foremost bothers your conscience; if loving the people in your life with a godly love is a struggle for you, then I invite you to join me in asking God to change our hearts right now. Let’s answer the call of the Holy Spirit to turn our backs on old ways of thinking and behaving. Let’s take the gifts Jesus paid for with His blood. Again John writes that if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Why? Jesus, the Son of God, agreed to take the sentence we deserved. Remember, He is faithful and just. Just in the sense that with God, justice will be served. Sin had to be punished; dealt with. And it was, because God is faithful. He had always promised to love and forgive those who return to Him. To pave the way for that return, he justly punished His Son on the cross. That means your sins and mine no longer condemn us. They are gone. They died when Jesus died.
This is what the Christian Church calls the gospel. Jesus exchanged his life for ours. That’s what he was getting at when He called himself “the Good Shepherd” who lays down his life for the sheep. In contrast to some wimpy hired hand with no stake in the sheep, who runs at the first sign of a predator, Jesus’ idea of shepherding includes this on the job description: he will fight to the death, if necessary, to protect his flock. He’ll go out there with rod and staff if he has to. He’ll go out there and get beaten and whipped and nailed to a cross if he has to. You want to talk about a test of love? Here it is. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, freely lays himself down on the altar of sacrifice, so you can be free. Jesus doesn’t just talk about love, or teach it as a concept; he demonstrates what it is. True love, Jesus reveals, is a decision to sacrifice and give yourself to another. True love is a decision to sacrifice and give yourself to another. The cross is the ultimate expression of sacrificial, self-giving love. Through Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, our accounts with God are settled. When I trust that God had declared me “not guilty” because of Jesus sacrifice, then I know the true meaning of forgiveness, and my soul can finally rest.
And something else happens too. When that forgiveness settles into your heart and soul, you will become very conscious of the fact that every day brings new opportunities to sacrifice and give yourself to another. And not always in some big, dramatic way. You’ll be sacrificing something, your comfort, your time, your schedule, maybe even your hard-earned cash. You’ll be presented with chances to give up something so that you can build into someone else’s life. The example of Jesus and the presence of Jesus tells you, “Take the risk! Make the sacrifice! Give of yourself!” This is what it means to “love one another” in a way that matters.
Have you ever stopped to consider what this world would be like without sacrificial love? Listen:
Six humans trapped by happenstance in bleak and bitter cold/Each one possessed a stick of wood, or so the story goes. Their dying fire in need of logs, the first man held his back/For on the faces round the fire he noticed one was black. The next man looking cross the way saw one not of his church/and couldn’t bring himself to give the fire his stick of birch. The third one sat in tattered clothes—he gave his coat a hitch/Why should his log be put to use to warm the idle rich? The rich man sat and thought about the wealth he had to store/and how to keep what he had earned from the lazy, shiftless poor. The black man’s face bespoke revenge as the fire passed from his sight/for all he saw in the stick of wood was a chance to spite the white. The last man of this forlorn group did nothing except for gain/Giving only to those who gave was how he played the game. Their logs held tight in death’s still hand was proof of human sin/They didn’t die from the cold without—they died from the cold within.
One of the many things we have been saved from is the “cold within.” We were saved from the “cold within” by the sacrificial, self-giving actions of Jesus. When you sacrifice and give of yourself to build into the lives of others, you are releasing the power of God into the world. The sacrificial, self-giving love of Jesus Christ is the only hope this world has. Tap into it. Be a part of it. Be a conduit of that love and let it flow through you. Passing the test really isn’t the point. Being like Jesus is. Go do it in His Name.
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