“Love is…”
February 8, 2013
Do you remember the comic strip, “Love is…” which featured a paunchy girl and boy who were “barely” dressed while offering little gems of wisdom about love? Love is elusive, electrifying, and a necessity and not a luxury. In the 1960s a shy artist named Kim Casali found she could best express her feelings to the man who would eventually become her husband through her napkin drawn messages which he would find every day in the most unlikely places. Roberto, a handsome Italian by the way, eventually shared these love notes with the Los Angeles Times readers in 1970 and today over 100 million people are enjoying this comic strip. I remember reading the black and white cartoons in the daily newspaper, and while not finding the “comic” very comical, I gleaned a gem or two about what love is.
One in particular remains in my memory – “Love is when actions speak louder than words.” Love is a tricky concept in that we all know it exists but it can be challenging to define. But God does a great job of defining exactly what love is in I Corinthians 13 where we read:
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.8 Love never ends…”
While defining love is a great starting point, telling what it is cannot be our ending point. We need to take the being verb of what love is and put it into action verb form.
If you have been reading our book selection for this month, “Love Walked Among Us”, you may recall reading about the widow in Luke 7:11-17, who not only lost her husband but also lost her only son. As a Jewish woman, her greatest joy was to give birth to a son, thus her greatest sorrow was to lose her son. When Jesus comes to her, we read, “When the Lord saw her, His heart went out to her…” He saw her in the crowd of town people who came to help the mother bury her son, and He felt compassion for her. Then He went and touched the coffin and commanded the young boy to “get up” and then Jesus gave the son back to his mother.
Love IS kind and Jesus WAS so very kind to the widow of Nain. However, love is also when actions speak louder than words. Jesus saw the widow in the midst of the crowds and He felt her loss and pain, and then He acted on her behalf in giving her back her son.
Love IS and love DOES. (sv)
On a personal note, my parents are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary today! They have been being and doing for each other for a very long time now, and their love continues….Congratulations, Mom and Dad! Thank you for living out I Corinthians 13 for my brothers and me and for all who know you. Love is …partners for life!