A Meditation on Love
Love.
Four letters
seeking to name that which
transcends words.
Love,
the wellspring of joy,
the anchor of meaning,
the heartbeat of the
human experience.
It is a force
that binds,
that mends,
that breathes life into the
broken places.
‘Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast;
it is not proud’ (1 Corinthians 13:4).
Love humbles us,
softens us,
teaches us to see
beyond ourselves.
But love is not content to
remain an idea or a
fleeting emotion.
It takes on flesh and
moves among us.
Love has a name.
His name is Jesus.
In Him,
love walked our roads,
touched our wounds,
and bore our sorrows.
He lived and died
enacting and embracing
self-giving,
sacrificial love.
Now, risen and reigning,
He rules not with a
sword of power but with the
scepter of compassion.
He is a King,
yes,
but a King whose kingdom
serves the broken,
loves the wounded,
and forgives the sinner.
His reign is one of
healing and restoration,
a kingdom where the last are first
and the meek inherit the earth.
In Jesus,
we see love in its
purest form—
active,
redemptive,
unyielding.
Yet love cannot thrive in isolation.
The myth of individualism
tempts us to believe
that we are self-sufficient,
that we need no one else.
But this is a lonely fiction.
We are created for connection,
for communion.
As John Donne reminds us,
‘No man is an island,
entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent,
a part of the main.”
Love calls us out of our
self-imposed exile and
into community,
where our lives intertwine with
others in mutual care and belonging.
In the Christian tradition,
even God is not solitary
but a communion of love:
Father, Son, and Spirit. ‘
‘God is love,” writes John, ‘Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16).
The Trinity reveals that
love is relational,
dynamic,
ever-flowing.
Each person of the Trinity
exists in perfect unity,
giving and receiving love
without ceasing.
This divine pattern
teaches us that love,
by its nature,
cannot remain self-contained;
it must move outward,
drawing others in.
To love is to belong.
In community,
we discover that our
individual strengths and gifts
are not meant for self-glorification
but for the
flourishing of the whole.
Love grows through
shared joys and
shared sorrows,
through bearing one another’s burdens
and celebrating one another’s victories.
‘Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins”* (1 Peter 4:8).
Love in community
challenges the
rugged individualism
that often
defines our age.
It reminds us that we are not the
center of the universe,
and yet we are profoundly valued—
not because we stand apart
but because we belong.
‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another’ (John 13:35).
True love invites us to
embrace the vulnerability
of being known and the
responsibility of knowing others.
In the end,
love is what remains.
It is both gift and task,
both mystery and calling.
It draws us beyond ourselves,
into the sacred dance of
giving and receiving,
of healing and being healed.
Together, in love,
we reflect the divine community
that binds all things,
finding in our shared life a
glimpse of the eternal.
- Swales , 2024
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