I once read an address delivered by Dr. Douglas Freeman at the dedication of the library at the University of Florida. Dr. Freeman was for many years the editor of the Richmond News Leader and the author of a Pulitzer Prize–winning biography of Robert E. Lee. At the close of his address he made a rather startling observation that the most important thing about a library was not to be found in the size of the building or the number of books on its shelves. Its future usefulness would be determined by whether or not there was love for human beings on the part of those who served in it. Justifying this observation from personal experience, he told how as a boy of nine he accidentally walked into a private library in Richmond. A kind librarian who loved children ignored the fact that he was not entitled to be there, led him to a shelf containing biographies of American heroes, and invited him to read.
This was the beginning of a lifelong interest for him. He stated that he thanked God for the fact that his first encounter with a librarian was with one who loved little children.
The value of a library, of a school, of a church … the value of anything must be measured in terms of love. The Bible makes this clear when it says of charity (an older word for love), “And yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophesy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 12:31; 13:1-3).
Librarians, teachers, coaches, preachers, merchants, students, parents, everybody—let us love another.