Nineteen-year-old Johnny, who has Down syndrome, bags groceries at a supermarket. After a training session on the power of words, he and his father write short encouraging lines every evening, and he slips one into the last bag of every customer. A month later the queue at his till reaches the back of the store and people refuse to move to the empty checkouts. That story opens a sermon on the command to love (John 13), where the new part is one added clause: as I have loved you. Such love is not natural, which is why the strength for it comes not from Jesus beside us but from Jesus in us. Listen and think about who in your week would get a note like that, if it were up to you alone.
