The Source of True Love

(Some Reflections on the Gift of Love.)

God created us with the need to love and be loved, and He alone can satisfy the deepest yearning of every human soul for total love and complete understanding. The things of this earth can satisfy the body, but only God and His eternal love can ever fill that aching spiritual void in our hearts that He created for Himself alone. The human spirit can never be completely satisfied with anything less than utter union with the great and loving Spirit that created it.

“God is love.” He is the very Spirit of love itself, true love, everlasting love, real love, genuine love that never ends from a lover who never leaves, the lover of all lovers, God Himself. He’s pictured in His Son, Jesus, who came for love and lived in love and died for love that we might live and love forever. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Love is life’s sweetest mystery. It can be ethereal or down-to-earth, thunderous and passionate or tender and hushed. At once priceless and free, it’s the universal experience that is wonderfully personal. Like a scintillating jewel that reflects beauty off its many facets—each unique yet each part of the whole—is that mystical, magical, marvelous thing called love.

It is in the faces of a mother and her child—mutual adoration that is beyond words. It is in the faces of parents as they embrace a returning prodigal. It is in the faces of a couple in love, who are lost in each other’s eyes and dreams. It is in the faces of volunteers who care for the afflicted, the homeless, the destitute. It is in the faces of strangers and friends—anyone who takes time to be thoughtful and kind. It is in the face of the dying believer as he looks heavenward to new life and joy unspeakable.

And it’s through love’s many faces that we see God’s own image, for God is love! Every time we see love manifest, we get a glimpse of God. These few pages don’t pretend to do the subject justice. Instead, they point to the source of love, God Himself, who gives freely, without partiality and without end.

Love is something that gets better all the time!

People not only need to hear about true love, they need to see it. They need to see love put into action. It’s like that poem by Edgar A. Guest, which says: I’d rather see a sermon, than to hear one any day. I’d rather one would walk with me than merely tell the way.

It’s human nature to sometimes confuse the words you say, but there’s no confusion when others see love put into practice.

Love is not hurting anybody. Love is preferring the happiness of others to our own. Love is choosing to suffer, if necessary, in order to help someone else. Love is courage. Love is total sacrifice. Love is never lost.—It always has an effect sooner or later. Love is forever.—David Brandt Berg

Love has no age. It is always being born.—Blaise Pascal

Love is a game two can play and both win.—Eva Gabor

Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within the reach
of every hand.—Mother Teresa

Love is an image of God, and not a lifeless image, but the living essence of the divine nature that beams full of all goodness.—Martin Luther

Love is like fire: if it’s not communicated, it goes out.—Giovanni Papini

Every man feels instinctively that all the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.—James Russell Lowell

Wherever there is another human being, there is an opportunity to show love.—Author unknown

There is a light in this world, a healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter. We sometimes lose sight of this force when there is suffering and too much pain. Then suddenly, the spirit will emerge through the lives of ordinary people who hear a call and answer in extraordinary ways.—Mother Teresa


1John 4:8 God is love.