Do you remember those little comic strips? My Mom loved them. In fact, she kept a little notebook of clippings she gathered from the newspaper each day. The thing that is so significant about these single, “Love Is” sayings, is their simplicity. Each comic is a picture of just one small aspect of love.
I think a lot of time, in our over-Hollywood-saturated culture, we come to think of love as the grand gestures, the larger than life, just in the nick of time, romantic stories. Hollywood and Hallmark promise the happy ever-afters, but roll the credits before they have to figure out how to sustain it. And this brings us back to the little things.
Love is won or lost over a thousand little things. In the 60 plus years that these comic strips have been written, the artists have literally found thousands of things that love is. I think the trick to it all is being able to see what love is.
Being able to appreciate the people who love you is not as easy as it would seem, it actually takes quite a bit of work. Being able to say thank you is another step. And then there is the part where we need to be actively loving others! Again, all those little things add up. If you are like me, and need some help to understand all of this, God gives us some great information about how to love and what love is, in the Bible.
In the book of First Corinthians chapter 13, Paul gives us a very clear picture of love:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres…
…Love never fails.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
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