I really like the phrase “Love is contagious.” I think it succinctly expresses the power of love, and it raise a picture in my mind of love passed along person to person. I first heard, or at least first noticed, the phrase as part of a story told to me by an older couple at our church in North Carolina.

Dean and Mary were probably in their late 70s when this story took place. They were standing, with a number of other people, in the foyer of a very popular family-style restaurant waiting for a table, and happened to be holding hands. After a while a young woman came up to them and politely said, “My husband and I have been admiring the way you two are so obviously still in love. You know love is contagious, and you are role models for us. Seeing you makes us love each other more. We hope that when we reach your age that we will still be so much in love.”

We all know that feeling loved make us feel good and more ready to show that love to others. What this story shows is that observing love, even when we’re not the recipients, can motivate us to love. Jesus points out in John 13:35 that this is one of the ways in which we can witness, when he says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Fortunately he makes this easier for us by giving us His own unconditional love.

At the end of her story, Mary admitted that she and Dean didn’t have the heart to tell the young woman that they’d only been married for two weeks.

Jim Originally posted May 2019