Stretch Armstrong

1 Peter 1:22  You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.

Do you remember Stretch Armstrong? Stretch was a doll that did exactly what his name suggested, he stretched. One of my brothers got one, and being the Godsey boys, we tried out best to see if we could break him.

Nope. We pulled him with both hands. Then we pulled him between two of us. We even tried tying each hand to a bike and riding in different directions. We couldn’t break him! He almost killed one of us when the tape holding him to the back of one of the bikes broke, and Stretch came flying toward the rider of their other bike!

According to the always infallible internet, Stretch could stretch between 4 to 5 feet! I even saw a video where they fired bullets in Stretch. He survived! It wasn’t on the packaging that Stretch Armstrong was bullet proof, but it should have been…

Just like Stretch, as Christians our love should stretch to as many people as it can. Today’s verse challenges us to love each other deeply, with our whole heart.

How far does your love stretch? Sure, we can love those who love us, but what about others? What about the neighbor you can’t stand, or the coworker you avoid in the hallways? Does your love of Christ stretch out to include them? It should. It must.

I don’t think it is a stretch (see what I did there?) to say that we should be stretching our love far and wide to everyone we meet. The world is looking for love, and as Christians we have the best kind of all.

Today’s Readings: Isaiah 36,37; Psalm 76; 1 Peter 1

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