Love is our only legacy

This weekend, we cleaned out the garage at the cottage. As we looked at the paint shelf, my brother in law laughed. His wife had left all kinds of cans of thinner, paint, finishing, varnish... few of which we would ever use. She was a kind of paint packrat.

As we moved and got rid of all these cans of paint, I started to realize that more and more the cottage is becoming a place without her. It still carries her signature - so many things to attract hummingbirds, and paintings of them everywhere. But we've moved just about everything. There are few linens, groceries, paints, golf clubs, or any other objects that are now where she left them, by her own hands. She would recognize the place, but could she find anything?

Eventually, just about everything will go. Not immediately, of course. But as time passes and more of us go, children and nieces will get keepsakes passed on. Less sentimental and/or useful items will be sold at garage sales, or taken to the dump. The photo albums will last long past us - great grandchildren may still have them a century out.

But the only thing that truly lasts is love. It is the only seed you plant that takes root eternally, passing a seed of itself forward through time, and leaving a history ever backwards through time. Like I told my brother in law this weekend, I can remember a time when I did not know my wife. But I cannot remember a time when I did not love her.

In fact, I believe love has no tense. It has no past, present, or future. Like the eternal God who is Love, it says only, "I AM."