It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm. This way they covered and protected themselves, but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions.

After a while, they decided to distance themselves from one another because of the pain and they began to die, alone and frozen. So, they had to make a choice: accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth.

Wisely, they decided to get back together. They learned to live with the little wounds caused by their close relationships in order to stay warm and survive.

Jesus was constantly encouraging His disciples to love one another. Not some touchy-feely kind of love, but God’s kind of love, that coexists with the faults, failures and hurts that others sometimes bring into our lives.

In I John 4:20-21, we are commanded as the children of God to love our brothers, “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?  And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”

Only a person who has genuinely experienced the love of God is able to love the people around them. Some of the meanest people I’ve ever met are some of those I’ve met in church. They’re quirky, opinionated, boastful, selfish and just about any other negative personal trait you can name. In other words, they are just like me, riddled with faults.

It’s easy to love those who are “lovable.” We sometimes struggle to get close to, and love those who naturally rub us the wrong way. That’s bad enough, but then Jesus tells me I have to love my enemies. Sounds impossible and it is; unless I have the love of Jesus in me. That love that forgives, accepts and treats others the same way Jesus treated others, even while dying on the cross.