Friday 19 March 2010

Love

I've been thinking a lot about love lately. When I was younger, I always thought that love was that funny mushy/butterfly feeling you got when the boy you had a crush on brushed past you in the corridor. I knew I loved my Mum in a way that was different from that, in the way that I was (and am) devoted to her. I thought love was a feeling. Either the butterflies or the devotion.
As I've got older, I've come to realise that love is no small number of things. It's the hammering heart, the cuddle, the quiet consideration, random act of kindness, patience, endurance, trust, nearness. It is something that has been put in everyone's heart. We all want it, seek it, fight for it and wish for it. Sometimes it is elusive, other times it is snatched, it can be everlasting and...perfect?
Love brings security, identity, joy...salvation? You hear sometimes, people describing their partners as their 'saviours', the ones who have saved them from some pain or desperation.
If love, as the songs say, is a many splendoured thing that makes the world go round - how can it come from anywhere except the region of heaven and the Father enthroned there?
Father, Saviour, Lord, Yahweh, Love. If God is Love - it can be perfect and everlasting, it can bring security, peace and nearness. What we see of Love on earth is nothing - not compared to what God gives. As we open our arms to embrace the ones we love, we are a reflection of the arms opened wide begging 'Father Forgive'. As couples say their vows on their wedding day, they are echoing the promises of love from God. When our faces light up at the sight of old friends, we are showing the least tincture of the smile that lights the face of the Lord when we turn towards him and give him our praises. Thats the love I want to show to people...do me a favour...remind me of that next time I am moaning..?

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