Counting the omer – a short musing on the Scriptures for each night of the omer, leading up to Shavuot. Today is April 26th, the 16th day of the omer.
I’ll confess I’ve never been one to carefully count the omer – the 50 days after Passover leading up to Shavuot. Yet it’s a commandment from God, and it’s pleasing to God to keep God’s commandments.
I’ve often advised others to try to keep one new commandment as a means to grow in faith; I might as well take my own advice. 
To the musing!
Love
Paul writes in Corinthians that love is patient. It’s so difficult to read this and really think deeply about it because “love” is such a loaded term today.
The love Paul is talking about is the kind that repairs the world. The kind that “shows kindness, doesn’t brag, is humble, doesn’t seek it’s own way.”
The late Art Katz, an ardent atheist university professor who became a believer after a divine encounter, put it another way: “What this world needs is for men to wash one another’s feet.”
Serving people without expectation of repayment. That’s the love Paul is speaking about. It was demonstrated by Messiah’s own life, in which he served other people, ultimately forfeiting his life for others.
Love is patient
Where does patience come in when serving people?
Looking at my own life, if God wasn’t patient in His love for me, I would’ve been abandoned a long time ago. I’ve sinned. I’ve lusted. I’ve had a short fuse with my wife, with my kids. I often doubt God will see me through some of the difficult situations in my life.
But God is patient with me. These errors in my own life are covered by a patient love from God.
This is what Paul means when he says love is patient.
When people don’t live up to our expectations, we still love them, showing the full measure of patience that we ourselves have received from the Lord. Patient love waits faithfully for growth and maturity. It doesn’t fret about the way things are; it trusts that God will do the work according to His will, for His own good pleasure and glory.
That’s patient love.
I will pray and work toward this in my life: to be a more patient husband and father in service to my wife and kids.
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