While reflecting on a fitting topic for Ms. Eugenia B. Chambers, and remembering her cheerful, warm, and radiant disposition and remembering her helpmate, Mr. Frank Chambers, I was drawn to 1 John 4, which uplifts loving others and being loved.

Her late husband Frank loved her. Her sons, Jim and Joe loved her. Her daughter -in-laws, Becky and Linda loved her. Her grandchildren and their spouses, James and Sylvia, Walter and Julie, Brittney, Blake, Bradley, Neil and Brett loved her. Her brothers and sister loved her. Her dedicated sitter, Ms. Hattie English loved her. Ms. English spent countless hours and months and many years by Ms. Eugenia's side providing compassionate care and support. Her friends, and those at Heritage Hills and Columbus Hospice loved her. She was loved. And through her cheerful expression, warm disposition shown during her end of life journey showed that she loved others.

1 Corinthians 13 uplifts, "But now faith, hope, love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love." The greatest of these is love. In 1 John, the Apostle John provides reassurance to Christians in their faith. He is the Apostle of Love and Love is mentioned throughout this letter. The blueprint of his message consists of God is light, God is love and God is life, Light, Love and Life. 1 John 4:16-19 says we have come to know and believe the love, which God as for us.

God is love and the one who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. By this love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because He first loved us. God showed us real love.

Everyone talks about love. But if we want to know real love, we should check out God's love for us. His love for us is unselfish, giving and sacrificial. God is the source of real love. When we trust in Christ, God gives us the ability to love others His way.

When I think of Frank and Eugenia, it reminds me of this love. Just as the Apostle John was an eyewitness to Jesus' love, I was a witness of Mr. Chambers love for his wife and her love for him. Though she was verbally non-communicative during her end of life, her spirit radiated that of one with a cheerful and glad heart.

She was a member of Edgewood Presbyterian Church for many years. Mr. Chambers shared stories about Ms. Eugenia enjoyed of helping others and participating in church events. Their connection to Edgewood Presbyterian and those people who God put in their lives, symbolizes to me their connection to Christ. For it was Christ who demonstrated His love for us.

Christ who demonstrated perfect love who casts out all fear. He gave his life for us. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him shall have everlasting life. Love is action. Love gives. Because God has given, we can give too. Because God has loved us, we can love others.

God gave us Ms. Eugenia for 83 years,20 months, and 12 days. I don't know the hours or seconds, but I am thankful for her life, her loving spirit, and her light that shall continue to shine upon our remembrances of her.

I take pleasure to have known her during her 83rd year of her life. I take pleasure in having heard the stories that Frank shared about the beginning of their courtship. He shared that after he first saw her, he said to himself, I am going to marry her. During the time when he was in the army, he wrote her letters. After that third year of serving and having returned home, he learned that Ms. Eugenia' last name had not changed, it was still Brooks, he knew for sure, she was going to be his wife, and her name changed to Eugenia Chambers.

They were married for about sixty years. Frank would share every detail of his special memories with a big smile on his face. He would tell the story as if they had just returned from their honeymoon. That is how the story began and I am eyewitness to the last year of their marriage.

He would bring her sweet potatoes and other snacks nearly everyday. He said he liked to see her eat. She would smile and her pretty blue eyes would shine with joy as she looked at him and us. To see her smile, was to know that everything was all right.
To see them both together, interacting and both with cheerfulness, I felt a part of that love too. And we all have been given the opportunity to be a part of that circle of love. Roberta Bondi, my former professor at Emory University and author of "To Love as God Loves", says love includes as part of its very nature a willingness to care for the person, which means to take on real responsibility for another. She describes love as a deep attitude of the heart or as a disposition directed at something or someone with whom we are in a long-tern relationship or commitment.

Love in that regard is not shaped by emotion but instead by commitment. Commitment shapes our seeing, understanding, and acting. Love is about commitment. Eugenia Brooks Chambers loved others and others loved her.

She was committed to being a wife, mother, and church member. And others were committed to her, her family, her sitter, the staff of Heritage Hills and her Columbus Hospice team.

Through her life and our relationship, we can all understand our service of being committed to caring. This is what Jesus did. He is the complete expression of God in human form and He has revealed God to us. When we love one another, the invisible God reveals Himself to others through us and his love is made complete.

Our job is to love faithfully those God has given us to love whether there are two or two hundred of them. I am glad that I had the opportunity to witness the love that Mr. and Mrs. Chambers had for each other and their children and grandchildren. May we all be challenged to be revived, refreshed, reminded, and uplifted, and transformed by God's love for us so that we will better exemplify love for those who God places in our lives.

To the family and friends of the Chambers family, may God bless you and keep you. May He make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.