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Key Bible Verse: Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). Bonus Reading: Genesis 1:26-27, 31

During World War II, some 1,500 huge German bombers bombarded London for 57 consecutive nights. The Royal Air Force Hurricane fighter Peter Foster flew was agile and effective but had a fatal design flaw: the propeller was mounted a scant foot or so in front of the cockpit, and the fuel lines snaked along the cockpit toward the engine. In a direct hit, the cockpit would melt off every feature of the pilot's face.

Foster became a "downed pilot." These RAF heroes often underwent 20 to 40 surgeries to refashion what was once their face. What remained was essentially a scar. After numerous surgical procedures, Peter's anxiety increased as the day for his release approached. He knew that airmen with similar injuries had been rejected by wives unable to accept this new outer image of their husbands.

Foster's girlfriend assured him that nothing had changed except a few millimeter's thickness of skin. She loved him, not his facial membrane. The two were married just before Peter left the hospital. "She became my mirror," Peter said of his wife. "She gave my a new image of myself."

—Ken Sutterfield in The Power of an Encouraging Word

• Do you see God's image when you look at someone you don't know—or care to know?

Thought to Apply: You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

— KHALIL JIBRAN (SYRIAN WRITER AND ARTIST)

Credits: Adapted from— Monday: The Power of an Encouraging Word (New Leaf, 1997)

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information click here.

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