Deep love, love deeply


Hyperbole has taken over our speech, we love an outfit, we adore a purse, and we freely state that all kinds of mundane things are awesome.  I'm guilty on all counts and I am not repenting, neither am I condemning. Sometimes the things we are all over the moon gushing about just aren't really worthy of the syllables of praise.  And, sometimes they are worthy and we miss the opportunity to be loud and proud.

Where love is involved, we need to seize every opportunity to be loud and proud.  We need to tell stories of love.  The world needs you to take every chance you trip over to express love, to say why you love, and to share love.   Frequently, Greg asks me, "Have I told you today that I love you?."

You may know us well enough by now to surmise it is a question he asks daily.  It is one of his adorable quirky things that I totally love some days, and think is awesome.  Other days, when I am impatient and cranky I think he is nuts and worry about early onset dementia. Or I just feel frustrated and my inside voice leaves the dark quietness, exploding into the outside, "Don't you know if you told me or not?"

Love is patient, love is kind... and love is not irritable or resentful (1 Corinthians 13) unless it is mine on a bad day. On those days when I am walking the razor edge of cranky, I have to remind myself the question Greg poses is rhetorical.  It is a statement, and it is a backhanded endearment all tangled up together. It is love in all its imperfect finery and it represents every one of us.  We are imperfect yet beautiful.  We are impatient yet yearning.  We are humans, reluctant participants, pushed into the world's greatest love story, surprised by our surroundings and our lives.
Where did the angels go?
Little AJM arrived last weekend, the newest burst of love in our lives, just in time for the Advent week of Love.  Her parents sent us a photo this week capturing her wide-eyed look of surprise. I had another descriptor for it but it isn't suitable for this space. We laughed, then I started writing this blog in my head. I imagined that two weeks ago she was in the realms of angels and the safety of her mum's belly, slowly acclimatizing to dogs barking and all the other sounds of our world.  Then here she was suddenly in a world with Doozer looking down on her and the angels fading into the background.  She discovered she could wave her arms around, something which was unthinkable in the confined space of the uterus.  And her eyes began to focus on the motley cast of characters in her earthly family.  Oh the surprise.
Oh God, do I have to be in this story - the greatest love story ever?
She arrived into a story of love, another brand-new human in the best love story ever.  I'm not a big fan of organized religion of any kind, I think it has messed up the love story royally.  But I am a huge fan (yes, that is hyperbole) of the Jesus love story in it's original form where we are tasked with loving one another.  I love the simplicity and the complexity of it.  "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins." (John 15:12)  I am humbled by the enormity of Jesus' ask of us, to love each other deeply.  Sometimes I'm not lovable and I bet you aren't either.  Yet, we are collectively tasked with loving each other deeply.  That is our only role in the world's best love story.

Think daily on your role, move through your day with love, speak your lines of love loudly and proudly to those around you, and always try to keep your heart open to the amazement and surprise at being included in this marvellous story.  We all have only one thing to do, loving one another deeply, let's do it well.  Listen for the Angels We Have Heard on High

Merry Christmas from #lifebytheswake to you and yours!

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