Love, our richest treasure to give and to receive.  When we carry each other’s burdens, pray for each other, feed each other, weep for each other, rejoice for each other, and know when to leave each other alone, we are responding out of deep love.  The greatest gift we can give and be willing to accept is unconditional love.

The following meditation is drawn from a 200th anniversary sermon at the Congregational church in Rupert, Vermont:

Our Richest Treasure

THERE IS PLENTY of work to be done down here, God knows. To struggle each day to walk the paths of righteousness is no pushover, and struggle we must because just as we are fed like sheep in green pastures, we must also feed his sheep, which are each other. Jesus, our shepherd, tells us that. We must help bear each other’s burdens. We must pray for each other. We must nourish each other, weep with each other, rejoice with each other. Sometimes we must just learn to let each other alone. In short, we must love each other. We must never forget that…..And it is also our richest treasure and the source of our deepest joy and highest hope. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

– Originally published in The Clown in the Belfry by Frederick Buechner