What's love but a secondhand emotion????

There I stood at the kitchen sink, washing dishes. I looked out the window and saw Junie B looking back at me through her stall window... a moment of pure joy... made possible by my husband’s hard work, a gift of love. Months of planning and building were now at an end as we began the final push. All day Friday Michael worked to clean up the building trash, scanning the area for nails that might hurt Junie B’s hooves, picking up and cleaning up, finishing up the last little building chores. And there she was, moved in and looking at me while I was looking at her. A long held, fiercely cherished dream had come true. Someone else ( Michael), had out of love, made my dream his dream too, and worked to make it real.
Yesterday we baled and gathered hay, beginning the process of collecting food for the next winter. Our crew was motley but sterling... friends, some old and some new. One of the crew, a Kenyan named Janue, had graduated from a Chicago seminary, made his way to Johnson City, Tennessee to study clinical pastoral education with our friend James Pollard. He has no money, literally came on faith, so James is finding him work and being his transportation source. Tad brought daughter Hannah so Pam could work on another project. I was Nana for the afternoon. As Hannah and I sat with our feet in the mountain stream, cooling off after helping clean out the old hay in the barn, she looked at me and said... “Peggy, this makes me feel like I am a part of your farm family.” Another continuing dream, children coming to this place and feeling a part of it and of us, came true yesterday.
And last night I cooked supper for the crew of ten. Janue is a vegetarian so I added some extra vegetables to the table at the last minute. He pulled me aside and said quietly, “Do not do anything extra for me, please.” James told him to relax and enjoy himself because it gave me pleasure to care for him, to let me give him the gift of hospitality. We sat around the table, laughing, eating, telling stories, easing our aches and pains for a little while before the final push to pick up the last few bales. A home full of friends and food and laughter and gratitude is a gift of love.
After the remaining bales of hay had been picked up, a few remained to sit on the deck to watch the sunset. As the red glow faded from the sky, we felt scattered drops of rain. It felt so good. We sat there enjoying the cool wet shower for a little while then moved to the front porch. As we sat in the swing and rocking chairs, the rain continued to fall, singing a song on the tin roof. It was a beautiful benediction for the day.
Love is a second hand emotion. Not used and discarded, but an emotion that becomes our own out of love for someone else. Michael felt my love and need for a horse of my own and worked hard to give me that gift. Our friends know how we love this farm and give us the gift of sharing in that love... helping with the hay, barn raisings, tree clearing, fence building. I love having friends and family gather around our table so I cook for the multitudes. Hospitality is more than a Southern tradition for me.
God knew we needed to know Love. So Jesus came to live with us, a secondhand expression of Love. God’s love is so overwhelming and powerful we could not bear to feel the fullness of that emotion. Jesus became our Lover, our connection to God and God’s connection to us. We can love because we have been loved. When nailed down to name the most important commandment Jesus said, “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.” Tina Turner’s hit song asks, “What’s love got to do with it? What’s love but a secondhand emotion?” Love has everything to do with it. Today I will make someone else’s dream my own out of love. I will love because I have been loved. Thanks be to the One who first loved me.