Love...

Love… 

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth.

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies.

1 st Corinthians 13:4-8a [The Message]

Paul’s famous description of love in 1st Corinthians 13 is a thought-provoking study in what love is – and what love is not.  It is also a very tall order for human relationships.  Various phrases always pull me up short, usually ending in the thought, “How in the world is that possible?”   Down in the trenches of human connection, not flying off the handle and always looking for the best in the other person is far easier said than done.  I have been told that this passage is a model that we should strive to emulate.  I don’t know about you, but I can strive till the cows come home, and I will still come up short. 

The above passage is a perfect description, however, of God’s love – unchanging, unconditional, and eternal.  His heart is the wellspring from which this love flows out over the entire universe, covering every man, woman and child.  Our challenge is to open our hearts to Him, so that His love will not only cover us, but flow through us to those who need our acceptance and love.

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Love divine, all loves excelling,

Joy of heaven to earth come down.

Fix in us Thy humble dwelling,

All Thy faithful mercies crown.

Jesus, Thou art all compassion,

Pure, unbounded love Thou art.

Visit us with Thy salvation,

Enter every trembling heart.

The United Methodist Hymnal, No. 384