Love is Being Together©

by Cheryl Faye Hollar
(Franklinton, NC, USA)

On this July 4th holiday, I am reminded that love is simply being together and just enjoying each other’s company. All over this country, I’m sure, friends and families are gathering to celebrate this holiday. They’ll be going to the beach, going on picnics, and going to huge fireworks displays. We never went to fireworks or anything when I was a little girl, but we’d hear them explode all over the neighborhood. Now, they’re organized events all over the world. I think that’s great!

I want to tell you about the gathering in my small hometown (population about 2000). It only began last year. The American Legion hosted it (and they are doing so again this year), and they invited local musicians to entertain us while we ate hot dogs and sno-cones and waited for dusk and fireworks! I remember what a success it was and how great it was to see so many people come together in this family-oriented atmosphere.

This year, it’ll be the same. It’s a chance to see old friends and meet new friends – friends from my hometown and friends from neighboring towns. And it’ll be the same with you. I don’t even have to tell you.

But I do have to tell you a little about my hometown so that you will understand why participation in this event was somewhat of a surprise to me and so that you will see why it meant so much to me.

Main Street in my hometown had begun to crumble and had been doing so for years. The movie theater I visited as a child completely fell in. There was literally nothing left but the front door. To tell you the truth, there was nothing in town anymore. What was once a booming town turned into a virtual ghost town. People started leaving town to go shopping in malls in larger cities, and no one was moving in. I even heard there was a couple who came from out of state to discuss buying some beautiful property and a very large columned home near town but were so turned off by the looks of the town that they turned back toward home!!

It’s funny, but it’s not! But I’m so thankful for a Revitalization Committee and for a local couple who believed in this town and its people enough to actually roll up their sleeves and try to put the town back together. They recently cleaned up one of the store fronts and opened the “Philling Station,” which has the theme of the old-time gas stations – only it’s a coffee house and tea room of sorts, at least that’s how I describe it.

There’s lots of flavors of coffees and sandwiches on the menu. And it’s gradually becoming a gathering place for townspeople. It’s great to see people come together and talk and just be together – and that’s love, that’s showing people you care – spending time with them.

Sunday we dedicated Deacons at my church, and one of the lines our pastor said is that we serve the Lord by serving one another. And that’s love too. It also makes you feel good inside.

There will be a lot of serving at the ball field this weekend, where the fireworks are being held – hot dogs, hamburgers, and sno-cones - giving of time and food because members of the American Legion cared enough to think of this event for us to share time with each other and just be together.

Jesus said he who wants to be great should be servant of all.

He also said in I John 4:7-8, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

GOD IS LOVE.

There are other ways we can spend time together this holiday too. We can read to our children (as a writer of a children’s book, this is what I like to do), play with the children and family pets, bake something with our children – the list goes on and on. Look around. Opportunities to show love are everywhere. We can’t outgive God, especially where love is concerned.

Holidays like July 4th are times many people give in to depression. And that’s an easy thing to do. You’ve heard it said, “If you want to feel better – do something for someone.” I think I’ll give that a try this weekend. I can give something as small as a smile or a good word.

God loved us before we were even born. How can we not love and serve one another?