Love

Love can mean desire, liking, admiration, enjoyment, the need to find completion. The emphasis is on getting.  However there is another side to love.  Love can mean sacrifice and devotion, putting up with inconvenience, doing always what is best for the loved one. The emphasis is on giving.  Love can be attracted to that which is lovely, but it can also create loveliness where it was not to be found before.

As we experience it in everyday life, love is a mixture of the two: what the Greeks of old called eros and agape.  However whenever we read in the Bible about God’s love or the love that God calls for from people it is agape love that is referred to.  It is creative, self-giving, and other enhancing.