Is Everyone You Love Covered?
December 3, 2010One of the many Black Friday and Cyberspace Monday enticements that caught my eye was this offer from the AAA auto club, “Is everyone you love covered?” While AAA offers many travel and leisure services, they are probably most known for their offer of protection on the highways and byways. Since a friend of mine has given me the gift of AAA coverage, I answered the ad’s question by thinking of everyone I love and wondering if they were covered. And as I thought of their protection, my mind went to the dangers on the highways and byways of their lives rather than to the dangers of road travel, which in turn sent my mind to the account of Noah’s celebration of the increase of his vineyard.
“Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japeth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned away, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness.” (Genesis 9: 20 – 23) The motivation for Noah’s liberal drinking and Ham’s pleasure in his good father being overtaken in a fault is not real clear in this passage. Perhaps Ham had been rebuked by Noah a time or two for his own drunkenness and now it was payback time for Ham? And isn’t it typical of one who walks in false steps to delight in the false steps of another? Whatever the reasons for Ham’s decision to further expose Noah, one thing is clear in this passage. Shem and Japheth, unlike their brother who gazed upon the exposure of his father, chose the more loving action of treating their father with dignity in the midst of an undignified situation. Not only would they not see their father’s shame, they covered Noah so that no one else might see it either.
And isn’t that what love should do? Shouldn’t love cover those we love rather than publish their weaknesses and indiscretions for all to see?
“Is everyone you love covered?” My road travel is covered by my current AAA membership, but now I need to make sure that a mantle of love is covering the faults of those I love. (SV)
Looking for more words? Read Proverbs 10: 12 and I Peter 4: 8 and take note of the reminder that love covers a multitude of sins instead of taking pleasure in the wrongdoings of others.