092707

September 27, 2007

Thoughts on Love

by Shana Schutte

I once read that there are only two things that can pierce the human heart: beauty and pain. Isn't it interesting how closely the two are connected? Sometimes the thing that brings the greatest beauty is the thing that brings the greatest grief. For example, loving a spouse "for better for worse, for richer, for poorer," through the ages of life can usher in immense beauty, but when death steals our mate away, it can usher in immense pain.

That's how love can sometimes feel: it can be a thief, but also a bearer of gifts. But if we're truly honest, would we have it any other way? Yes, we often pay to love in tears, but this is not bad. The pain of love means that we are alive, that we do not have hearts of stone but hearts of flesh, which are one with the God who grieves. If placed on scales, knowing love certainly would outweigh the pain of love. So in this I place my hope. I open up my heart to Christ and give Him permission to rule over all that I am--even my deepest emotions.

Sometimes it hurts to care for others, but I want to know the pain that comes from giving myself away. To deny my longing to love, and be loved, is to deny how Christ made me--because I am made for relationships. Like all of humanity, I need; I ache; I long. And I am desperate to know how God loves. There is no shame in this desperation. It's by God's design. And when I admit my need, I embrace God's plan for my heart.

I choose love because the value of love surpasses pain. Yes, I will cry. Yes, I will hurt--but my heart will live.

"Moreover, I wil give you a new heart; and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26 (NASB)

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