Love in the Everyday
Where do you look to find love?
This is a good question to pause on, and evaluate for ourselves.
Where do I seek love? And if I can’t find it, what then?
Every summer we go camping on a river with kilometres of rocky beaches. As we walk the beaches our eyes scan the rocks looking for unique ones; particularly heart-shaped ones. My gardens are now full of the heart-shaped rocks that we have found. They are like little love notes that we have picked up and placed around our home to remind us that we are loved, and who we are loved by. Each time I see one, it captivates my attention for a moment, and redirects my thoughts to either the person who found the rock for me, or the One who created the rock, leaving it as a reminder to be found.
Here are two truths about love:
Love doesn’t originate in me.
Love is a choice.
1 John 4 tells us that we love because God first loved us. Love doesn’t start with you and me. If it did, it would be imperfect, lacking in some way, because people are selfish. We are motivated, even subconsciously, by how things effect us and reflect on us. But, we are given an opportunity to receive true love from God, who loved us first, while we were unlovable, and demonstrated his love with action in person, through Jesus. God’s love is selfless and has no limit. This is why John also says that God is love. He is the standard of what real love is. He showed what love is and what love does through Jesus. He gives us the choice, the free will, to receive his love. I wonder if love is actually not a choice for God, because he is love? It is who he is. However, for us love is a choice, every day.
Looking for love in the everyday, invites us to have our imagination captured in a moment, by a word, a thought, a look, a kindness, or really anything (even butter on a knife). It’s an invitation to notice. To pay attention. To receive. Some days are harder than others, but when we have discovered what love is and does and looks like, we will be changed and our ability to notice love will be more acute. Likewise, our ability to choose to give love changes when we realize that it doesn’t originate with us! Love that originates in God is infinite and constant. Unconditional. When we choose to receive his love, we have access to love others like he loves us. Every day. Understanding that love originates in God, and is something we choose to first receive, and then to give, can develop our practice of love in each day, even to the people who are difficult to love. This is the difference that love makes. Everyday. Where are you seeing love today?
