It Starts With “L” Ends With “E”…

…and in between are “O” and “V.”

It’s the time of year when hearts and cupids are prevalent, chick flicks and love songs fill the airwaves and we are surrounded by—perhaps inundated with—“Hallmark’s Season of Love.”

And it got me thinking… How does one define love?

We use the word in our daily conversation with little thought to the depth of its meaning. We write a letter and casually sign it, Love. Often out of habit, we use love to express our feelings, like “I’d love to be in Florida right now!” We have no problem using it when we are happy, content, satisfied and fulfilled. Without becoming too analytical, I’m sure we would all agree that love is certainly an emotion each of us craves, an essential cog in life’s proverbial wheel. And I believe how we—or others around us—perceive, interpret or define it dictates how we respond.

October 3, 1964~Our engagement picture

Case in point…

It was my 19^thbirthday; we were in the middle of a dance floor at Casa Loma in the heart of Toronto. Built in the early 1900s this castle exuded mystery and romance, and a young woman couldn’t have asked for a more enchanting setting: big band music playing sentimental love songs, a full moon, an open patio…dancing under the stars!

When I heard the words, “I love you” whispered in my ear, I froze and then walked away and left a confused young man standing in the middle of the dance floor! Why? Probably because I was a little scared, maybe  overwhelmed. In any event,I knew that love was not the problem!  So I gave my head a quick shake, did an about-face and confidently opened a door in my life on which I have never looked back.

Two years later a new kind of love enveloped me.

I became a mother and very quickly learned that a mother’s love cannot be explained, one has to experience it. I remember thinking as I looked at my first born that I couldn’t possibly have another child because I didn’t have any love left! I soon discovered that with the addition of two more children, my ‘love well’ was bottomless!

An excerpt from my memoirs…

It was a hot, dry Saturday in August, the day we moved from the country to the city. At that time my family consisted of mother and daughter poodles in their senior years, a blue-point Siamese cat, named Jay—after the Toronto Blue Jays—my loving husband and our three children (16, 12 & 9).

This little statue sits on the top ledge of my stove as a reminder of its source and its meaning.

My youngest was a charismatic extrovert. Where there were people to talk to, he would gravitate to them. Where there was a place to be, he would go. True to form, he had come begging to search out his new surroundings, and with the warning of “Stay within eye sight,” I turned back to the task at hand.…

After what was probably twenty minutes, but my body dictated it to be two hours, my eleven-year-old appeared, in desperate need of a quarter. “A quarter,” I countered, “what on earth do you need a quarter for?” “There’s a garage sale up the street,” he exclaimed and he saw something he just had to have! “It only cost a quarter,” he pleaded. Reluctantly, I searched out my purse and briskly placed a quarter in his out-stretched hand. Obviously delighted, he turned and with untapped energy ran back into his world. I turned and wearily walked back into mine.

Moments later a little voice said, “Here, Mommy, this is for you.” A very humbled mother glanced down at the little hands of her eleven-year-old people-person and saw a gift of love that melted her heart. A little statue that said: It starts with  ‘L’ ends with ‘E’ and in between are ‘O’ and  ‘V.’

As finite human beings, our idea of love can be very genuine and sincere, and we may feel very comfortable and satisfied with how we express it and how we receive it. Yet, 1 Corinthians 13— the Bible’s ’love’ chapter—may prove us lacking: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, 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.”

Wow! I know I fall short!

And if 1 Corinthians 13 isn’t enough to humble us, the Scriptures teach us that not only is God’s love unconditional and selfless, pure and complete, but that God, Himself is Love and He defines that love through the gift of His Son.

For God so loved…that he gave his one and only Son,  J E S U S  (John 3:16)

Something to think about the next time you hear or say, “I love…