the most perfect, unblemished form of love comes, of course, from our Creator Himself.

paul writes in romans that "I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

God's love is never shoved in your face, for any of that would overwhelm instantly and cause the creature to fall down at the Creator's feet with no exercise of his/her own free will. but its always there. soft and subtle but undeniable. He's always there. silent, waiting, for you to one day come to the realisation that that's the way its been all this time.

what then is the defining mark of human love? God Himself created love. and it's only natural that our idea of love follow after His idea of love. but so many times to us, love means possession, love is sadly confused with lust. love is no longer patient and kind, for sometimes we fail to show love in our actions or the words that we say. i do the exact same things that i will not to do, and for the life of me, i cannot figure out why.

love is commitment. love, it waits. love, it lasts. love is diligent, it works. love is not suffocating, love puts others before self. love is sacrifice.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails.

i learnt two things about love over these past few weeks.

i learnt that because He loves me,
"as the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the Lord surrounds His people
From this time forth and even forever."
- Psalm125:2
He surrounds me

i learnt that He created us well and able to give 1Corinthians13-type love (not perfectly, but the closest we can be). it's just a matter of whether or not we fight to give it, or lie down in defeat and say it's too hard.

God helps us to love. What do we mean by that when we talk of God helping us? We mean God putting into us a little bit of Himself, so to speak. He puts a little of His love into us and that is how we love one another. When you teach a child writing, you hold its hand while it forms the letters: that is, it forms the letters because you are forming them. We love because God loves and holds our hand while we do it. -CS Lewis