So I’m writing from a different spot in the coffee shop today.  Private chair in a corner, in the back room of the shop away from the ordering counter.  A faux-palm tree stands about five feet high over my right shoulder. My laptop is on my lap and not on a table. I can see almost the entire shop from here.  And the perpective is quite different.

I’m really encourged to see that the vast majority of people here are sharing a meal or a cup of coffee together. I mean, it is lunchtime, but I expected to see more people like me, drinking coffee alone, head buried in a laptop, smartphone, or some other device. Thankfully, it’s just the opposite.  The shop is full of converation, quiet yet lively, lighthearted yet intense.

The power of face-to-face communication cannot be denied.

The non-verbal communication by a person’s face alone communicates half the message. Posture, nods and hand gestures tell even more.

Often, words are just an extra, the icing on the cake.

What better way to tell someone “I love you” than to tell them in person, right in front of them?  To communicate your feelings for them with your whole being, and not merely with words?

Jesus Christ came to earth 2000 Christmases ago to do just that. He who was fully God and fully man came to tell us, His people, how much he loved us. In person. Through His touch, through a smile, through tears for a dead friend or for an entire city.

Through sacrifice.  Through pain.

Through the cross.

Don’t those you love deserve to hear that you love them – and see it, and feel it — from you, in person? Don’t let today go by without communicating your love to those who mean the most to you.

With your whole being.