Human beings are a plethora of emotions…..happiness, sorrow, anger, peacefulness, jealousy, frustration, ecstasy, hate, love and many more….and everyone feels most of these sometime or the other. But the one emotion that has for ages hogged the limelight on the world’s stage is ‘Love’……
What is this ‘Love’? A little girl experiences it while skipping along in the park - an ice-cream cone in one hand and her dad’s protective hand in the other. A little boy feels it when his puppy yawns, rolls over and licks him on the nose. A teenager goes through it when he reads a mushy love note that his crush left in his locker. A mother understands it when her baby’s tiny fist closes over her little finger. A young couple acknowledge it when they look into each other eyes at the altar and say “I do” and old couples know it when they look back at a life of togetherness and memories on their 60th wedding anniversary…..
What is this ‘Love’? How can it apply to so many different people, mean so many different things and yet be the same thing? Is love a feeling, an emotion only? Or is it something more? In my opinion, love is more than just a feeling. It is a commitment. Feelings change…they pass. Commitments are forever. When you make up your mind to ‘love’ someone, you’re essentially making a commitment to care about that person regardless of what they do, where they go or who they become. Easier said than done. If all of us could do this, there would be so much less heartache in the world.
It must be borne in mind that people, being inherently imperfect, WILL let you down, hurt you, abandon you, forget you, and sometimes even turn against you. Nevertheless, true love still loves. I Corinthians 13 says “Love is patient, kind, not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love is slow to anger and keeps no grudges, hates evil, rejoices in truth, always protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres”. From a human viewpoint, these qualities may be visible in your love relationship with others now and then. But to consistently love this way seems impossible. Correction: Difficult indeed but not impossible.
What is this ‘Love’? A little girl experiences it while skipping along in the park - an ice-cream cone in one hand and her dad’s protective hand in the other. A little boy feels it when his puppy yawns, rolls over and licks him on the nose. A teenager goes through it when he reads a mushy love note that his crush left in his locker. A mother understands it when her baby’s tiny fist closes over her little finger. A young couple acknowledge it when they look into each other eyes at the altar and say “I do” and old couples know it when they look back at a life of togetherness and memories on their 60th wedding anniversary…..
What is this ‘Love’? How can it apply to so many different people, mean so many different things and yet be the same thing? Is love a feeling, an emotion only? Or is it something more? In my opinion, love is more than just a feeling. It is a commitment. Feelings change…they pass. Commitments are forever. When you make up your mind to ‘love’ someone, you’re essentially making a commitment to care about that person regardless of what they do, where they go or who they become. Easier said than done. If all of us could do this, there would be so much less heartache in the world.
It must be borne in mind that people, being inherently imperfect, WILL let you down, hurt you, abandon you, forget you, and sometimes even turn against you. Nevertheless, true love still loves. I Corinthians 13 says “Love is patient, kind, not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love is slow to anger and keeps no grudges, hates evil, rejoices in truth, always protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres”. From a human viewpoint, these qualities may be visible in your love relationship with others now and then. But to consistently love this way seems impossible. Correction: Difficult indeed but not impossible.
Our Lord Himself is our role model here. Despite the many ways we turn away or turn against Him, He remains the faithful lover, the Hound of Heaven that chases us to the farthest corners of the earth in order to win us back. Frankly, we ought to be flattered. I mean, the Creator of the Universe actually sets apart time from his packed schedule of running the place to chase you!!! How amazing can this be? Thrilled? Delighted? Great! Now think….if God who has absolutely no need for human company can love us so much, how much more must we, who depend on relationships for emotional survival, love each other? Chew on it……..
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