In Biblical times, a person’s name revealed something about who he was or what she was intended to be. In the creation story, there is Adam, meaning earth, and Eve, meaning mother. Their names told you who they were and what they were intended to be. Abraham, father of nations; Isaac, laughter; Jacob, supplanter; Esau, red; Moses, drawn from the water; Joshua, salvation. On and on we could go. Names, in Biblical times, revealed who a person was or what her parents intended her to be.
I wonder if back in 1912 when a baby girl was born in Kinston, North Carolina, her parents realized all that they were saying when they called her Amanda. Amanda. Now I do not know that we have any Latin scholars in the crowd today; but if you know a tiny bit of Latin, you know how to conjugate the verb, “amo, amas, amat” – I love, you love, he loves. But did you know that the present participle of the verb, “to love”, in Latin is “amanda”? “Amanda”, in Latin, means “loving”. Did her parents know that their daughter would grow into maturity as a lady we would experience as profoundly loving? Amanda lived up to her name, and grew into a loving lady, concerned about others, touching many lives, supporting her family, communicating care, invested in her community, a vital part of her church, living beyond herself. Loving. Amanda means loving.
Where did Amanda Jackson get that loving spirit? Where does that come from, that ability to live outside yourself and to care for others? Is that something you learn in school? Is that something you just decide to go and do? Where do you learn how to be loving?
The Bible has an answer. It tells us that love comes from God, and that if we are loving, that is a result of our relationship with God.
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”
Amanda was loving because she was loved; because God loved her and she accepted God’s love.
I
Surely you noticed that Amanda loved life. She loved life itself, and worked to keep her quality of life, even under the most difficult of circumstances. Amanda, loving Amanda, loved life.
Did you ever see a more elegant lady? Wasn’t there something about the way she carried herself, with dignity? Something about the way she dressed, with style? Everything about her said, “I am glad to be alive”. “I enjoy life”. Amanda loved life and showed it. With some people, you think, “How vain, how flashy, how tasteless.” With Amanda, you thought, “How together, how lovely, how tasteful.” Amanda was in love with life, and just seeing her told you that.
The last time I visited with Amanda, just about a month ago, she could not speak, but I thought she might be able to hear. I was not sure she knew who I was; her face was a blank. So I spoke with her for a while and read Scripture and prayed, just as you would expect. But then, on an instinct, as I was about to leave, I said, “Mrs. Jackson, you look good today. You always manage to look good.” And that face came alive, there was a little expression that sort of said, “Oh, go on now. Me?” I knew that the old Amanda was still there, loving life.
But I do not have to focus only on her last days to know that she loved life. We can go back, months ago, when she had her first stroke. Deacon Faith Brown and I went to see her at Prince George’s Hospital, and neither of us thought she would ever get out of there. She had had a massive stroke. And yet she fought her way back. She loved life enough to make her way back from the edge.
When she came home, I went to see her to talk about places she might go for assisted living. She read the materials I brought and thought about it, but said, “I don’t want to lose my freedom. I want to live in my own home where I can be with my own family and live my own life.” That was an Amanda-type decision. It was a “loving life” decision; she wanted to live life to the full.
I believe the Scripture gives us a clue about Amanda’s love of life when it says:
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear … we love because he first loved us.”
You love life if you are loved. You love life if you know that it came from God, that life is given out of God’s love. Amanda: loving because she was loved.
II
But not only was Amanda loving about her own life. She was loving toward others. She cared for others in profound ways, costly ways. She spent of herself for those who needed her. I submit to you that no one can be loving like that unless they have first been loved.
Amanda’s dedication to her son William was truly special. William’s disabilities, as all of you know, required a great deal of attention. Transportation, dealing with the nursing home, seeing to it that he got the care he needed – all of these things took time and money and energy. At one point she enlisted a member of our church to help her negotiate for William’s care at the nursing home. A lesser person would just have let it go when there was an issue, but loving Amanda knew that her son deserved better. She spent herself for him.
For me, one of the finest examples of Amanda’s love for others came during the last days for her husband, Matthew. Matthew had not been spiritually attentive for a while, and so as he began to wane, she loved him enough to attend not only to his physical condition, but also to his spiritual condition. I will always treasure the memory of talking with Matthew about his relationship to the Lord. I will always treasure that Sunday I was able to announce to our congregation that Matthew Jackson, though he was unable to be present at worship, wanted them to know that he had accepted Christ as his savior and he wished to be received into the church. And I will always treasure, with tears of joy, that the next Sunday I could announce that Matthew had gone home to be with his Lord. None of that would have happened if Amanda had not been loving and had not cared about her husband.
Eric, she loved you too, and she trusted you with her care. That is a very special gift to you. Neighbors – what a special bond she had with you! What a vital part of that block she has been! Sisters in the Sunday School class and the Mundhenk missionary circle – how she cared enjoyed you, prayed for you! You are better because Amanda Jackson was in your life and loved you!
Again, I ask, where does this come from? This capacity to love others? It comes from God. The Bible says,
“Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.”
Amanda; the very name means loving. Loving because she was loved.
III
Amanda Jackson loved life; she loved others; but most of all she loved God. She loved her Lord. She trusted in Him and did not flinch in the face of any of life’s challenges. She believed that God would care for her, and she loved such a God. She believed – no, she knew – that what God has done in Jesus Christ was for all eternity, and that was enough.
I cannot do any better than to quote God’s word for you:
“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Without any reservation or hesitancy, Amanda Jackson received the love of God for her, and knew that what God did in the cross of Christ was for her. For the whole world, yes, but for her personally. She knew that in the mystery of God’s infinity, He had cared for her from before her birth and He loved her. He loved her enough to sacrifice for her. And she knew also that, in the mystery of God’s eternity, there was a place prepared for her to abide in Him.
Again, John says it better than I could ever hope to say it:
“God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.”
The secret to Amanda Jackson’s life, the clue to her loving spirit is really very simple. She was loving because she was loved. Loved by God. That secret is available to you too. That spirit can be your spirit. And the eternity of love that Amanda Jackson has now inherited can be your eternity too. All you have to do is accept it, receive it, and abide in it.
“God is love … we love because He first loved us.”
