A true story appeared years ago in a publication named The Pathfinder. It was about a woman who had an enormous impact on her community.

If you look at a map of Alaska you will see a thin, wavy line about midway between Nome and Teller, Alaska. This line is known as Mary’s River. It was named for an Eskimo woman many years ago who lived along the shores of the river with her husband and their two children.

But then tragedy struck—the village was hit by a deadly flu virus. This happened during the gold rush era when men were frantically searching for gold in the Alaskan wilderness.

The flu took the lives of Mary’s children and her husband. Fourteen other children in the village lost their parents to the flu. Out of compassion, this woman adopted all 14 of these children.

She also extended her hands of kindness to gold prospectors, offering them a place to stay and eat.

The miners who had a difficult time pronouncing her Eskimo name, and decided to call her simply, “Mary,” as suggested by one of the miners who said, “It’s a grand old name.”

To honor her kindness to them, the miners named the stream that passed by her home “Mary’s River”—and it remains Mary’s River to this day.

When teachers from the Lower 48 founded schools in the little river village they heard the stories. So they named the settlement “Mary’s Igloo.” Maps today show this settlement too.

As the village grew, other things were named for her. Now there are Mary’s trees and Mary’s reindeer.

Mary married a second time and, of course, he was known as “Mary’s husband.”

Mary’s River, Alaska is a monument to the power of this woman’s love for her family and neighbors.

We all know how important love in our lives. In Matthew 22:34-40 we read these words: Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (the Old Testament Law of Moses) Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

What it means to be a Christian some would say can be boiled down to these two simple commandments.

Here is what Christian faith is all about: Love for God and love for one’s neighbor.

Note that both of these commandments are from the Old Testament Law of Moses, from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. After all Jesus said He had not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it—or as someone once said, Jesus came to “to fill it full.”

The people Jesus was speaking to needed to be reminded of what was central, what was fundamental, what was truly essential in their faith—just as Christians need to be reminded today.

Amy Carmichael was a Missionary from Ireland who answered God’s call to go to India, where she touched the lives of thousands of Indian women and children.

She was born and raised at the end of the 19th century in a Christian home in Ireland. When she turned 16, she moved to the city of Belfast, where she started a mission for women who worked in the mills. Before long she was ministering to more than 500 women.

Amy really wanted to be a foreign missionary, and she was given that opportunity. After a brief missions placement in Japan, she was posted to India.

Carmichael had a strong spirit; however, she suffered from neuralgia which often left her no choice but to run her ministry from her bed. When her condition grew worse, she was moved back to her home in Ireland.

After a period of rest she again returned to India feeling stronger and raring to go, and this time Amy channeled her efforts to rescuing young Indian women who were working as prostitutes in Hindu Temples.

Instead of returning home after completing her assignment, Carmichael spent the last 75 years of her life in India; and “Mother Amy” was buried there in India, in the land that she loved, among the people that she loved.

The children Amy saved erected a birdbath over her grave with the word ‘Amma’ inscribed on it, meaning “Mother” in the Tamil language.

Love was at the center of these two women’s faith, and Mary and Amy both personified the love of Christ.

The Apostle Paul said, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (I Corinthians 13:1).

In the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, Lawrence Lemieux of Canada was on his way to winning the silver medal in the yacht competition.

Competing in the Olympics had been a life-long dream of his, but then something happened that no one ever expected.

Joseph Chan of Singapore was racing close to Lemieux when he lost control of his yacht.

When Lemieux noticed him, Chan’s yacht had already capsized. Chan was struggling in the water and was injured, and barely staying afloat.

Without a second thought, Lemieux abandoned the race and reached out for his fellow sportsman and brought him aboard his own boat.

Unfortunately, his act of bravery and sportsmanship cost Lemieux the silver medal which had been well within his reach.

But Lemieux’s act of bravery wasn’t about to be forgotten.

At the closing ceremony of the 1988 Olympics, organizers of the games rewarded Lemieux’s efforts by awarding him the Pierre de Coubertin Medal, a medal awarded to athletes who display an exceptional spirit of sportsmanship.

In an interview after the Olympics, Lemieux said “As a sailor, your duty first is to people in distress . . . medals can follow afterwards.”

According to him, he only wanted to do what was right and not to be a hero. Saving a distressed soul according to him is worth more than going after medals.

You and I will probably never compete on the world stage, but each of us can reach out and make a difference in the life of someone who is struggling.

A woman called Mary did that in Alaska, and a woman named Amy did it in India, and an Olympic athlete did that and earned the world’s praise for his sportsmanship.

Who is there that you and I can show Christian love to?

Let’s look around, starting in our own home, then at work or school, wherever there are people: show them love.

An expert in the law tested Jesus with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

That says it all. Love is at the center of our faith. Love is essential to our physical and emotional well-being. And Love is our primary calling as followers of Jesus.