There is a true picture, description, definition of love in the Bible. Yet many people are frightened of this definition. Most of us feel like we can never measure up to that definition. I don't think there is a person on this earth that loves in the way the Bible describes. That is because the only love that never failed and never will fail is the love of Jesus. He lay down His life to prove His love. His love had no ulterior motives. I admit, I fail at love. I am a work in progress but there is the whole point. We are not able to love like we are supposed to apart from Christ. Even with Christ in our lives we will not always get it right. We will make mistakes. We will hurt people's feelings. We will be selfish or proud or conceited. Yet, in all of that our Lord first loved us, faults and all and gave His life for us. He does not keep a record of our wrongs and He keeps on loving us when we can't love the way we are called to love.
(credit for photo goes to: http://christianmodestyblogger.blogspot.com/2012/09/bible-verse-otd-love.html)
We can not let guilt or condemnation stop us from trying. We can not let our "humaness" stop us from trying, because sometimes we will get it right. We will show love to someone it matters to. Sometimes we will show love to a stranger when the Lord Himself prompts us to do so. It may be as small as a smile or giving a blanket to someone who is cold. It may be giving water to the thirst or bending to hear the whisper of a child. Love is something that can't be measured, held back or stopped. Love grows and gives and one act of love can grow into something so enormous it effects everyone around like the ripples in a pond.
I choose to keep on trying to love in my imperfect way. I choose to find the little ways to show love, even to the "un-loveable". I choose to love even when I don't necessarily want to. I choose to love those that push me away, even if it is quiet and from afar as I pray for God to bring a loved one back into the kingdom. Love is beautiful regardless of how it comes. True Love is a beautiful thing.
To me, Valentine's day is not just a commercial holiday. I love people every day. Valentine's day to me is a day to remember that I am not perfect but I can give and receive love. I can make a difference by showing the love of Jesus, even if it is just a tiny drop into a large ocean. When we love, even if the person we show love to does not see or receive it, there is one who knows and He notices and He smiles because His beloved son or daughter took time to LOVE.
1 Corinthians 13 New International Version (NIV)13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
