From sparks of sharing and caring
and cherishing come great light
in the lives of 2 individuals.
And that light overflows beyond the couple,
enlightening, helping, bringing hope and goodness
to others.
And often creates new unique new little beings:-)
To use a different analogy,
Love grows like a glowing vineyard in the sunrise,
takes root and develops one day at a time.
First, the exuberant bursting forth of new love,
then the gradual increase and budding of succulent grapes.
Sensuously, phrases from the Song of Songs in the Hebrew Bible
express this wonder.
"Kiss me with the kisses of your mouth, for your love is more delightful than wine." Song of Songs 1:2
Then love in maturity is like fine wine, improves with age.
Loving commitment is quiet understanding and mature acceptance
of imperfection. Love gives strength and creatively opens
in new ways to your beloved.
You are warmed by your beloved’s presence, even when your lover is away.
Miles do not separate. You want your beloved nearer. But near or far,
you know your lover is yours, and you are your beloved's.
Love means patience and trust. Love springs up; you and your beloved feel more whole.
Love fills the empty spaces in your hearts, leads you both to look up, and to give out to others, welling over with caring and compassion. Love is creative, compassionate, gentle, and kind, coming from the deep heart of God.
Love is choosing again and again, daily to love your beloved even in the hard times.
Love is wider than the widest, deeper than the deepest, closer than the closest--a fire of chosen passion.
--Anon and adapted
"Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous and does not boast; love is not arrogant 5 or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; Love is not irritable or resentful; 6 Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7Love covers all, trusts all, hopes all, endures all.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Love never ends."
1 Corinthians 13 Adapted, New Testament
7 "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
...18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love
...let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth
1 John 4: 7-12, 18, 1 John 3:18
Next Time--Marriage as a Covenant
covenant (n.)
c.1300, from Old French covenant "agreement," originally present participle of covenir "agree, meet," from Latin convenire "come together" (see convene). Applied in Scripture to God's arrangements with man as a translation of Latin testamentum, Greek diatheke, both rendering Hebrew berith (though testament also is used for the same word in different places).
Online Etymology Dictionary
To be continued--
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
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