LOVE LETTER

What do you think about when you hear the word love? Do you think about someone in particular? Do you think about your loved ones? Family? Friends? Is love merely a four letter word or can it really be defined at all? Does it become devalued on the commercialized holiday ahem...Valentine's Day? Can a person say "I love you" to someone he or she cares about so much that it loses its meaning?

I witnessed something quite special over the holidays. My Mom and I were running some errands, and she decided to go see one of her brothers. His grandson had just recovered from pneumonia. His immune system has been compromised by ALD (Adrenoleukodystrophy) which means that this particular disease eats away at the myelin in the brain. John Mark, my cousin has been saving his money to get a myelin transplant. Uncle Bob, my Mom's brother and Aunt Loretta, his wife lost a son several years ago to this very disease. Despite all of their heartache and grief, I witnessed something magical between them that is LOVE.

Just in the few minutes that I was around them, it was evident to me how much they love each other. I could tell by the way that they would look at each other that no matter what they had been through in the many years they have been married the spark was still there. It is so pure and so true. It is as if they have a special language of communicating with each other (heart to heart). It is like they have a sacred secret between them. The reason there marriage has sustained what life has thrown at them is because the foundation for their marriage is rooted in God. He sustained them, their marriage, and their love. Their love had not diminished in the face of uncertainty and calamity. It remained strong, and it is what saw them through the difficult times together. Perhaps Shakespeare came close to really zeroing in on what love means when he wrote the poem "Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds".

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved."

There are many different kinds of love. There is the love between two spouses like my aunt and uncle, and there is the love between a parent and child. The more I mature, the more I realize how much my parents love me. They brought me up to appreciate my family. They brought me up with the knowledge of my Creator. And as much as my parents love me, it is just a sample of how far, wide, and deep the Creator of the Universe and my being loves me. Wow! He loved me so much that he breathed air into my nostrils. I am His precious creation. We all are. Genesis 2:7 says "The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." His love is the best love. It never alters and it never changes. It is called Agape love, and only God can love us with Agape love. 1 John 4:16 says "God is Love."

When I think of love in its truest form, I think of 1 Corinthians 13 affectionately called "The Love Chapter" or as I like to think of it God's love letter to us. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7 says "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, and always perseveres." 1 Corinthians 13 :13 says "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love."

God longs to captivate us. Here are some verses that I believe speak right to the hearts of women:

Psalm 37: 4 "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Psalm 45:11 "The king is enthralled by your beauty."

Isaiah 61:1 "He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted."

Song of Songs 4:7 "All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you."

Proverbs 31:30 "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."

God's scriptures are full of his love for all of us! 2 Timothy 3:16 says "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness."As much as I love poetry and music, (waxing poetic and singing pretty melodies about love) they cannot even come close to God's Word, his love letter to each and every one of us.