What is love?

I was recently asked the question, "what is love?"  Thinking hard, I found that I could think of what it ISN'T, but for the life of me, couldn't define it.  I know what it feels like, warm, fuzzy . . .  good.  Or maybe that's sitting in front of a fire with a cup of chai tea.  Okay, let's start over. 

Love (without truth) isn't love.  True statement.  Love, true love, is telling the truth, no matter how hard it is. 

Or how about the theme of the old movie, Love Story.  "Love is never having to say you're sorry".  That's hogwash by the way.  For when you love someone, saying sorry is what you do over and over.

As far as I remember, from little on, I wanted to be loved.  For some reason, I never thought I was.  Now I know that was a lie.  To think back on my childhood, I was the first grandchild on my mother's side and her siblings and parents adored me.   Adoration = love?  Yeah, I guess it does.

 Even though my parents divorced by the time I was five, my father's parents also were very loving and active in my life.  In fact, my paternal grandmother was one of the most influential Christian women in my life.  

I remember my step-mom defined love once as us kids.  I smile as I think about it.

So I WAS loved.  Never feeling love and truly being loved must be different. Fast forward ahead, meeting my husband and declaring we "loved" each other, love was stability and what happened next in my life.  It was sticking to it, even when you didn't want to.  It was getting up early and going to work, when you were dead tired.  It was fixing bikes and serving meals.  Changing diapers and mopping floors.  

Now, almost 40 years later, I know that God is love.  He IS love.  He gave up all for me, for you.  His only son.  He thought of us and walked straight to the cross, knowing what would happen, not once looking back and wondering if we were worth it.

Satan, the deceiver, will always try and get us to believe we are not loved.  There is nothing further from the truth. 

Paul says, in his letter to the Ephesians, "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

WOW!  Now that's LOVE.  Grasp it.  Know it.  Be filled.