An Open Love Letter

November 4, 2006 - Saturday

An Open Love Letter Current mood: hopeful Category: Romance and Relationships The first time I met LOVE I was nine. I was sitting in church listening to our preacher and something stirred in my heart. I don't know how to explain it other than to say something changed in me and I became suddenly aware of the fact that life was a lot bigger than I had realized. That was the first day I cried because I was happy. It was the day I met Jesus and asked Him into my heart. It was the day I met LOVE. He has been with me every step of the way since that moment, and truly, He was there before. Even when I walk away from Him, He is still there. The second time I met LOVE I was eighteen. I met him in Anchorage, Alaska. He was bundled up in baby blankets and handed to me just a few hours after he was born. In many ways he was and still is my best earthly friend. We have shared laughter and tears; we have fought with words and made up with hugs and smooches on the cheek. He is my life-long DJ and I am his life-long English tutor. We share a love of music and all things hilarious. The day I met Joshua was the first day I met LOVE in human form. Even when he goes off to start his own family and takes his new best friend and makes her his wife, I know that I will still hold a special place in his heart and he will still hold a special place in mine. While both Jesus and Joshua have been constant in my life, and I have met LOVE in small portions along the way, it has been eighteen years since I've encountered LOVE to the degree that I first met it. I've had a few run-ins with what I thought were love…they were imposters, though. I know this not only because of how they acted, but also because of how I acted. There were equal portions of selfishness, jealousy and pride on both sides. These encounters were brief, ended abruptly and left scars. True love can be found in many places in the Bible. It's incredible the number of times God showed love to the Israelites when they were disobedient. It's unimaginable the number of times God held back judgement and gave mercy because of His love for His children. Of course the ultimate expression of love was when God sent His son Jesus to Earth. It was God's love for us that made Him do it, and it was Jesus' love for His Father and us that made Him choose to die on the cross for our sins so that we could have the option of not facing death but have eternal life. These are the actions of divine beings however, expressions of love that cannot be completely comprehended by mere humans. God did give us an explanation that we can understand, however, and it is found in 1 Corinthians 13, also known as the Love Chapter. 1 Corinthians 13 Verse 1. If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. Verse 2. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all His mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. Verses 3-7. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without 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. Verses 8-10. Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our in-completes will be canceled. Verse 11. When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good. Verse 12. We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then; see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing Him directly just as he knows us! Verse 13. But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. I must admit that I am still very much a work in progress when it comes to some of these things. I have moments of selfishness and pride, and I have flown off the handle. There are days when I want things that I don't have, but most of the time I'm truly content. I was content before but these days my cup is running over, and my heart is full. I have found LOVE. God has given me you. You make me desperately want to be and do all of the things that are listed in the Love Chapter. Despite our difficulties and my fears I have committed to not giving up on you or this relationship. More often than not I am more concerned with your well being over mine. I admit I do experience a certain amount of swelled head syndrome but it's because I'm so proud to know you, and so stuck up because I have you. Neither one of us keeps score of sins against the other…but then again there haven't really been that many wrongs done because we're both trying so hard to act out of love. You are such a blessing to me, such an encouragement and when I talk to you I am filled with hope for what will come. You are my best friend, my confidant and my twin. I give you to God, knowing that He will take care of you better than I, and I look forward to what He will do with us. I love you with all my heart, now and forever. Stephanie