How do we keep this great commandment to love God? How can we love someone we cannot see and do not know?
There are many ways to love God, including keeping His commandments, praying, reading about Him in the scriptures, and serving His children. It is serving his children I want to speak about today.
The first two commandments are deeply connected. If you ask God-fearing parents what acts of service they appreciate most from others, they are likely to point out efforts that have helped their children grow closer to God. They cite service to their children as if it directly benefited them. And it really does. There are few greater joys than watching your child progress.
Heavenly Father also thinks service to His children is a direct blessing to Himself. He says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” And in another place, “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God.” In fact, how much we love God's children truly reflects how much we love Him. This was clear to John the Apostle, who said to the early Saints, "if a man say he love God but hate his brother, he is a liar."
Consider Peter, a fisherman in Galilee. One day, Peter met and listened to Jesus as he taught from Peter's own fishing boat. When Jesus was finished teaching, he asked Peter to throw out his fishing net. Peter had fished all night and caught nothing, but this time his net filled with so many fish that it started to break. That was the last time we read about Peter fishing for a long time. He left that net and all he had, and followed Jesus. As the Savior put it, he was called to fish "men."
During the next few years Peter saw Jesus cast out devils, heal the sick, cause the lame to walk, and even raise the dead. He witnessed the Savior's ultimate example of love, from his suffering at Gethsemane, to his crucifixion at Calvary. He saw our resurrected Lord, and was told to go into all the world, loving people as He had loved them.
It is at this point we next read about Peter fishing. One night, He and several other Apostles decided to go cast their nets again. Once again, they caught nothing all night. When the morning came, they heard someone calling to them from the shore. The man told them to cast out their net one more time, this time on the right side of the boat. They did so, and their net came up so full of fishes that they were not able to pull it up out of the water. At this point I imagine they were thinking to themselves, "this is familiar." John looked over at Peter and said "It is the Lord."
They dragged their net to the shore and had fish for dinner. The Lord looked at Peter and said, "Lovest thou me more than these?" Peter answered affirmatively. "Feed my sheep," was the Savior's reply. We never read of Peter going fishing again.
Am I ever caught fishing when I should be serving God's children? If so, I should remember the second and third questions Jesus asked Peter. Both were "Lovest thou me?" Christ's reply to an affirmative response: "Feed my sheep."