The Language of Love – Part Four

“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” I John 3: 18

Little known is the story of faith expressed nonverbally by oppressed persons to their oppressors.

It came about among people who didn’t even speak the same language, but one of the groups spoke the language of love fluently.

In the saga of the Cherokee People’s Trail of Tears, the Cherokee nation, trying to keep peace and maintain self-pride, reluctantly agreed to move from North Georgia and North Carolina to the Oklahoma Indian Territory.  Grief-filled stories of injustices and brutality against these Native Americans along with disease and starvation left graves all along the trail causing it to be called the “trail of tears.”

The soldiers assigned to guard and guide them on this grueling trail didn’t remain unmoved by the faith of these simple people. Every single soldier was converted to Christianity along the trail. The language of love demonstrated by the Cherokees was interpreted by the song they sang along the trail. The title of the song contains all the words of the song they sang repetitiously: “What Can We Do For You Jesus? What Can We Do For You?”

As told by Dr. Henry Raddle, Waco Texas District Superintendent, reported by Billy D. Strayhorn, Arlington, Texas, as found in “Parables,” Volume 14, Number 5, page 5, July 1994.

I have been fortunate through the years to have people say to me that they love me. Among the many who said it have been some who did not mean it. Many have communicated it most clearly, one so distinctly. A lady called my attention to my shoe being untied posing a risk of falling. She said it. Then she showed it laying aside all semblance of dignity she spontaneously knelt down and tied it.

I entered the home where there was a young man with severe limitations. He could only make sounds and gestures. He kept pulling on my coat for reasons I did not understand until his dad explained his action. He was trying to communicate that he wanted me to take off my coat and stay awhile. Thus, he spoke the language of love clearly.

If we all would seek how to communicate love as aggressively as he our world would be a better place. Evaluate your communication skills in light of this:
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (I Corinthians 13: 4 – 7)        

You will find persons all along their trail of tears needing your visual and verbal love.