Thinking About Love
Dear Editor,
With Valentine’s Day yesterday, I ‘m sure many stores were busy with sales of cards, flowers and candy gifts for loved ones. Giving is a way to show love and affection for another. There are different forms of love: brotherly love, erotic-passionate love, and what scripture calls agape love. Agape is the purest form of love, sacrificial and seeking the good of the other without expecting anything in return. Only God can love us like that! Humans have the capacity for sacrificial love, but much of it is tainted with some selfishness. A mother’s love for her child often was compared to this kind of love. But abortion has marred even this illustration.
The human soul longs to be accepted and loved. All of us, no matter what race, age, gender, ethnic origin or economic status need to be loved. Jesus taught us that we are to love God with all our heart and mind and to love others as we love ourselves. By this, we would fullfill God’s laws and what the Old Testament prophets taught.
The “Great Lover of Our Soul”, Jesus, is the one who can empower us to do this. On our own, we naturally do not seek God, let alone love Him. Often, we rebell against Him. If we ask, the Holy Spirit of God will truly help us to love God and others as we ought. He changes hearts of stone into hearts open to God’s righteousness..
Lucia Hunter
