"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16). Love is blind! At least the "God so loved" love of the Bible is blind. The "love one another" love of the New Testament is also blind. When you look at how unlovable we mortals are, I am convinced it has to be blind. I am glad it is. Of all that love is and that can be said about it, nothing more important can be said about it than that is it blind to our unworthiness.

For love to be in the first place it so often has to be blind. Watch new parents as they stand before the hospital's nursery window and stare admiringly at their newly born offspring. Then you step up and take a look for yourself, only to observe a red, wrinkled, ugly little bundle stretch and squall. Yet, the wrinkles, the newborn ugliness, the fussing and crying, go totally unnoticed by the partents ... it is love at first sight, without reservatin! In the next crib, there is another newborn infant. This one is well-shaped and beatuifully featured. The parents of this one love it, too. Why? Because it is beautiful? No! They love it in spite of its beauty. You see, love, true love, has the uncanny ability to see inside, to see others for their inner worth and not outward appearance. God was able to look past our outward ugliness and repulsiveness and see in us some redeeming value.

Love IS blind! For it "covers a multitude of sins" (I Peter 4:8). That is not to declare that it is unconcerned about sin, but, it loves in spite of others' shortcomings, weaknesses and sins. That lesson is brought home to us so vividly in our children. They are not always good, never perfect, apt to disappoint and hurt us. Yet, we love them in spite of them. That's the perfect love that God has for us, as the Lord described it in Matthew 5:43-48, and we are admonished (it is not an optional matter) to also have this "perfect" love for others. Nothing less will do. If my brother's faults keep me from loving him, that is more of a reflection (a bad one) on me than it is on my erring brother.

Love being blind means there is enough love for every one in the world. Love being blind means the Great Commission is not impractical, but a very distinct possibility. Love being blind means even the poor - those poor in money and things of life and those who are poor in character - have a real live hope of being loved. Love being blind means that race and color are totally irrelevant. Love being blind means we can enjoy a sense of kinship with ALL within the church.

Is your love blind?