Children’s Message, Sunday, May 21, 2006, “Love One Another” (Scripture--John 15:9-17)

This weekend, I went to a wedding shower for my cousin. A wedding shower is basically a celebration party that people have before they get married. And at showers, a lot of times they have games and activities and stuff, and one of the activities was for us to write down our best love and marriage advice for Meghan. So I wrote down some advice and put it up on the board with everyone else’s.

Yesterday as I was driving home, I was thinking about this week’s scripture and wondering what I would talk to you about, and it hit me that the bible is full of good advice. The scripture that the adults will hear later comes from the Gospel of John and includes these words spoken by Jesus,

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

And I thought about that a lot--that we should try to love each other the way that Jesus loved us--husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, friends, nations. . . What would the world look like if we all tried to love each other the way that Jesus loved us? I bet that there would be less fighting, less mean thoughts, more sharing, more smiles. I don’t think it would be easy, and I don’t think any of us could follow that commandment all of the time, but I do think that it is pretty good advice on love, don’t you?

Let’s pray: Loving God
Help us to love one another
As you have loved us
And to do our best
To remember this commandment.
Amen.