Study of Love

So I've been thinking about what it means to love. There are quite a few definitions of love in Webster's dictionary, but the love I want to focus on is the love of the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another: as in the fatherly concern of God for humankind, as in the brotherly concern for others.

I've been wanting to spend some time on the thoughts of love for a while now, but felt that I couldn't really give it as much thought and study as I'd like. The truth is I will never give it the thought and study I'd like unless I at least make a beginning of it. And why not begin today, at the start of a new year? It seems a fitting beginning for the next chapter in my life.

When I began my study this morning it brought me to the beginning. Right back to the start of humanity, to Adam. Genesis 2:7 says,

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

So if I want to begin to understand love, true and lasting love, I must begin in Genesis two. I must begin with the first true and lasting love. Love begins with God, is sustained by God, and ends with God.

Today, I guess, I want to put down my goals or my direction for this study. So I want to begin to understand God's love. I know that there is a part of me which can have the knowledge of the love of God. There is also a part of me that can find the wisdom of God's love. And still, I know the depths of God's love are unending.

Does that mean we should not search these depths? I don't think so. I think that there is a great need in my life to understand what God says about His love for humanity, yes, but greater still His love for me personally.

Knowledge and wisdom on the matters of love, whether human love or the love of God is only a shadow of what I'm searching for. I want to develop a deeper sense of God's love. I want to develop my love for God, and my awareness of God's love for me.

I will search out human love. My own experiences of love. So I'll probably talk about my family, my childhood loves, friendship, or brotherly love. I'm not really sure where it will all take me, but I am ready to set of on this new journey.

Familial love is an important foundation for a successful life. Without it all kinds of problems arise. When I think of the depths of human love the first and greatest love I think of is that of a mother and her child. Maybe that is because I am a mother. But my love for my children is the deepest most unconditional love I have ever felt. It is the closest humanity can come to this kind of love. This love God demonstrated for us in Genesis chapter two.

The love a mother has for the child in her womb, the baby she holds close isn't spoiled by circumstances. It is the most untainted human love I personally have experienced in life. It begins with a deep emotional attachment that can neither be quantified or explained.

I know, I know you might say that ones first human love should be to ones spouse. I do love my spouse, but the love of marriage is not always unconditional. The love of marriage often has ups and downs, difficulties even from the onset.

The love I have with my husband is beautiful, unique, and precious to me. But it has not been an unconditional love. It has been a hard won, and lasting love. It has been filled with wounding we both brought into the union. More then any other relationship I have had to rely on God's grace to sustain that love. I have had to ask God to make my love for my husband to resemble in some way, at least in part the love described in Paul's letter to the church of Corinth.

I certainly haven't arrived in my love for Jason. I am not always as patient and kind as I wish. I can say that it is far more doable when I am walking closer to God to have the kind of love I want to have for him. The kind of love God wants me to have for him.

I suspect that it will require some vulnerability on my part, some transparency, which I have never much shied away from. So all of this is just a start. My time for study is over, but I will continue to consider things more as I go. So if my thoughts seem unfinished it is because they are.