Random Thoughts on Love

Throughout history, man has expressed his thoughts on the concept of "love," sometimes, perceiving it as something wonderful, beautiful, and intense and other times, expressing the sorrow and anger caused by love scorned. Whatever the case, no one can deny that love is a powerful energy and emotion, so intense in fact, that mothers have immediately been overcome with Herculean strength to lift a car or huge boulder off their child. Here are some random thoughts from others on love:  "Love is not what makes the world go round. Love is what makes the trip worthwhile." -Franklin Jones  "When two people are at one in their innermost hearts, they shatter even the strength of iron or bronze, and when two people understand each other in their innermost hearts, their words are sweet and strong like the fragrance of orchids." -I Ching  "Love should be a tree whose roots are deep in the earth, but whose branches extend into heaven." - Bertrand Russell  "Man has no choice but to love. For when he does not, he finds his alternative lies in loneliness, destruction, and despair." -Anonymous  "Loving people are happy, and happy people are loving." - Ken Keyes  "Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law." - Boethius  "Love is the only gold." -Tennyson Man may try to understand love and all its effects, but unless he knows the love of God, one can never fully know love, for God IS love, and the gift He gives to us, its foundation, is constructed in love. It is nice to show our affection to those we love by sending them flowers and candy, or doing kind deeds for them, but true love is not about fleshly desires, or emotions that make our physical bodies feel good, but it feeds the spirit as only God and His son, Jesus Christ can do. Love has one source and this source is God. Think on the following words of the Apostle Paul this morning: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:1-7 ESV). Roses and chocolates notwithstanding, let that kind of love be your gift to those around you!