To Love

I think we all need love. It’s something that is fundamental, essential, vital. Music, from contemporary references to the oldest ones, shows us this regularly. From memory, I think of the Black Eyed Peas that asks us “Where is the Love?”. That single was remixed thirteen years after its release, uniting many artists, to show us that we still need love and that it’s still a problem. There’s also another song, “I Want to Know What Love Is”, sung by Foreigner and Mariah Carey who, once again, show us a very human problem: understanding, finding and living true love… I sincerely think that you do not need me to give you more examples.

It seems to me that someone who’s never heard “I love you” from a loved one, a parent or a friend, must feel horrible. Because love is far from just being a romantic feeling like what movies sell us. I think that Anna and Elsa’s story in Frozen presents it well: the one who saves Anna, is the love his sister has for her. Love, is also between brothers and sisters, parents and children, between friends. But what is it?

Many will tell you that it's a feeling, that eventually it goes away and it comes back. Let it fall on you and there is nothing you can do about it. It’s almost inevitable after all. And seen like that, I admit that it does not reassure me. If it was just a feeling, love would only last when everything is going well. So I have a different thought: true love lasts no matter what.

The love that the Father speaks to us about is the love that He has shown us. It lasts beyond our highs. It crosses the valleys, overcomes the obstacles of our remoteness, transcends the frontiers of understanding and reasoning. He is able to abandon 99 healthy people who have already met him to seek the lost one (Luke 15: 4-5).

This is what led me to this other perception. I understood that love is a choice. I experienced it on purpose. And this in part when I chose to love the Father even when I didn't like what He was doing for me. But most of all, after realizing that He loves me even when my decisions go against his. When He chooses to love me instead of looking away from me at the slightest deviation. Love is caring for the loved one even when his offense against us would generally cause us to reject him. What I like to say - in English then the equivalent is complicated - is that I sometimes love without particularly “appreciating” the person, or the situation in which they have put me (think about your best friend tell that embarrassing story when you need to be minimally respected haha). Finally, I like it, even if I don't want to: “I love you, but I don’t like you right now”.

There is this series that I watched, I will keep the name from it because what I got from it at the time of my viewing is better than the whole of this one, which portrays love as being what we receive. Several characters believed they loved because another made him feel good, brought him peace, made him smile and made him feel as if the problems they were experiencing no longer existed. But as I heard this, Jesus' words came back to my mind. He said “I give you a new commandment: Love one another; as I have loved you, you also love one another. ” (John 13:34 and John 15:12).

The love of Jesus goes far beyond appreciating what others give us. Jesus gave himself out of love. He sacrificed His life for us. When the Bible tells us about Jesus and love, it tells us that He made the most of His love for His disciples. Here is what we are told:
It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (John 13:1 - 5)

Yeah, yeah, I know. This passage speaks of many things, and brings us back among other things to sanctification, especially with regard to the verses that follow. But can we stop for a moment to realize that at a time when people walked for hours, in a country where it is particularly hot, at a time when the car did not exist, Jesus decided to clean the feet of His disciples? This is what John called "putting the crown on his love". In other words, you can hardly love more. The moment He knelt down before men, Him, the Son of God, to wash the feet of His disciples. It was to crown His love.

I would like to stop here for this article, but more to come. So I'll meet you in two weeks for the future!
Be abundantly blessed,
Do