Schooled in Love

Woody Cooper stood in the loud mob the day Dorothy Counts, a Black girl, enrolled in his all-White high school in North Carolina. Taunting her, some boys yelled racial slurs and threw trash at Dorothy, but Woody didn’t rebuke them, even staying silent when a woman cried out, “Spit on her, girls!” He later asked himself, Why didn’t you at least say something? She was just another student coming to school. Haunted for decades by his sin of omission, especially after seeing himself in a news photo from that day, Woody finally reached out to Dorothy forty-nine years later to apologize.

As Woody learned, showing love and support for another human being isn’t just being brave; it’s also making a choice to be like Jesus. John the apostle taught this lesson to churches burdened by false teaching about Christ and His love.

“We love because He first loved us,” John wrote. “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar” (1 John 4:19-20). John recalled this great command: “Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister” (v. 21).

Woody and Dorothy reflected that love as they became close friends. They spoke at churches and schools together. On the night before he died, she came to see him. “I loved him,” she said, “and I know that he loved me.” That’s the Jesus way. It can be our way too, as God brings us together in His transforming love.