Love has always seemed to me like a strange thing to name.We recognise it everywhere, yet somehow struggle to explain it.
Perhaps love is easier to recognise backwards.
Look at what you give your time to.What do you worry about? What do you return to? What are you willing to endure?What makes you stop and smile for no particular reason?
I hugged a friend today and, for a moment, neither of us needed words – Love.
I called my Mom and we spoke about nothing important – Love, probably.
I ran this morning despite my very convincing argument to stay in bed – Also love.
Yesterday, I worked until I was exhausted. I did not particularly enjoy it, but I stayed. Could that be love too?
Love leaves evidence, not always the dramatic kind.
But in the small simple things we keep choosing.
I love chapati, which means I am apparently willing to fight flour, heat and geometry for them.
But then there are things I love without having to do anything at all. A sunset. A song that catches me off guard. A familiar laugh.
Perhaps love is both: the willingness to give, and the freedom to delight.The work of keeping something close, and the wonder of realising it was beautiful all along.
Love, love, love — the word wearing a dozen different coats.
And how could I forget the boy I met, the first time I asked myself, is this what love is?Ah — let me not digress, I only meant to gesture at romantic love, the kind we see and feel so often we mistake it for the whole of the world.
Let’s go back further.
You know how it’s said that love is the first and greatest commandment?
About a year ago I began to wonder what that looks like, practically. Do I go out and feed the poor? Grow kinder, gentler, quicker to smile? Show up more for the people I already love?The list has no end.
I tried, for a while, to reach for some of it. I don’t think I failed but neither did I succeed.So, I brought the question back to God. What does love look like?
There may be no single answer — only different forms wearing one name.
Somewhere in my reading I found two:
The love of complacency — loving a thing simply because it delights you. (I love chicken.)
The love of benevolence — loving in a way that reaches out to do good, to make something beautiful. (I work hard to raise my children because I love them.)
(John 3:16) For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
~Sonia Kabare
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