What a great mystery, a great beauty, a precious gift. It is like the bright sun that lights up the meadow, reveling the beautiful flowers that blossom, reflecting the crystal clear waters. It is like a song that touches the depths of your soul, stiring joy within the spirit. It unites, reconcils and rejoyces.
Yet love is more than a emotion, it is a decision! It is a decision to share and to receive, a decision to be hurt and be healed. It is an active process, a letting go of our selfish nature, to embrace others, like God has embraced us. Though it often seems too idealistic and imposible, remember that we were created in the image of God, who is love. The world may rob us of love, deceive us that there is no love, but do not be fooled! For He who is love has won the world!
Woe to the one who chooses to walk in the absence of love, where vengence lurks and sorrow stalls. What pain it is to be trapped in palms of hatred, to become the slave to the devil. I can only pray I would never hate, but be reminded and renewed by His Spirit.
God is love.
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If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
--- 1 Corinthians 13
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Oh Lord, teach me to love.
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