Faith, Hope, Love

[Meanwhile these three things remain – faith, hope and love; And the greatest of these is love – 1 Corinthians 13:13]


This particular Bible verse represents a very simple yet striking reality of life. People spend years trying to figure out the way they have lived their past and pondering over what the future has in store for them. We may often feel that we’ve accomplished quite a bit – that fat pay cheque with all its perks, bought an expensive diamond necklace as a gift for mom, travelled to exquisite places, made many friends and acquaintances along the way and the like.

But not one of us can predict how our lives will be – how the disarray of events will unfold and spread out before our very own eyes. Yet, we live by choice. Can we live with the faith of a small child laughing and giggling with glee, when her dad throws her up in the air only to catch her again? By believing in ourselves, our family and friends and importantly our creator? Can we adopt the hope, that whatever happens we will have the strength and courage to deal with it? The hope of a mother, that her estranged child will return back to her and show her some affection. And of course love – this powerful word has inspired many a writer, given motivation to the artist and has been the subject on which the actor gave his best performance to leave the audience in awe. Simply put, it is the rhyme and reason of our existence. The reason why we wake up in the morning, thank God for our dear ones, face the day having the assurance that we’re in the prayers of many and the thoughts of our close ones swim across our minds before we plunge into night’s slumber.

A good friend of mine told me a story many years ago that comes to my mind now. He was traveling by air to some destination when suddenly the engine stopped working and the airplane started plummeting downwards. The nervous smiles and reassurance given by the flight attendants did not help in pacifying the passengers. At that very moment, what filled the thoughts of my friend was his family – his loving wife and cute daughter. The love that he had for them encompassed his entire being and he was able to have the faith and hope that he would see them again. And thankfully his wishes were fulfilled when after swooping down some hundred feet, the engines recovered accompanied by loud cheer and prayers of thankfulness.

The striking revelation that I strongly believe in is that love encompasses the other two elements because when there is love, then faith and hope closely follow by default. After all, ‘the greatest of these is love’.

[This entry is dedicated to my family]