Remember our working definition of true love from Week 1 of this unit? “Higher love is a desire for the person you love to have what is truly best for them, and a commitment to do your part to make that happen.”

God shows true love for us by making it possible for us to walk in fellowship with the Divine. If we desire to be like God, the true love we show to survivors will have that same goal: to help people establish and maintain loving, joyful relationships with our Creator.

This means that if we offer tangible support (food, clothing, cash) it will be for the purpose of pointing survivors to God. If we offer prayers, encouragement, a listening ear—it will be to help remove obstacles that separate people from God. We won’t offer empty promises or false guarantees of good fortune. We certainly will not try to use or manipulate people for our purposes.

The proof of our love for survivors, and all other people, will be seen in our desire to point them to God; we will work to tighten up our words and actions, with God’s help, so that nothing we do distracts them from the Lord.