"You are mistaken, my friend"

"You are mistaken, my friend," said the abbé. "There are times when God's justice tarries for a while and it appears to us that we are forgotten by Him, but the time always comes when we find it is not so, and here is the proof."
With these words the abbé took the diamond from his pocket and handed it to Caderousse.

I love that excerpt from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.


1 John 3:16
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."

After reading that a couple of days ago, my journal had this to say:

Love. It's sacrificial. It places other lives before our own. It takes a giving-up on the physical, spiritual, and emotional levels. Jesus died for worthless people. That is love in its definitive form. There is no greater love, and anything called "love" that does not follow His pattern is nothing but fakeness embodied. Love is generosity. Love is grace. Love is mercy and compassion. Love takes time. Love is not easy. Love requires that it not share a throne with jealousy or pride. Love is beautiful and transforms the ugly into something worthy of the gazing eye.

That is why love in its simplest, most wonderful form is something that can change the world. It is not romantic in the least. It just involves doing to and for others. It isn't natural, and if evolution was very able, then it certainly would not exist anymore. That is why Jesus continues to be the most powerful, life- and world-changing human ever to step foot on this Earth. He alone was Love and never once failed to love others. He practiced the unnatural concept of true love to the very last iota. It worked. It still does.