The Nature of Love

“The truth is the more intimately you know someone, the more clearly you’ll see their faults.”

I came across this quote on Facebook today. There are a lot of truths in this statement and flowing from it. It explains why so few marriages last, why family vacations are so tough, why you don’t want to get stuck in a crowded elevator, and why true love is so great.

True love doesn’t grow out of a satisfactory evaluation of the good versus bad traits of the person loved. If that were true everyone would love the perfect people and no one would love you and me. True love seeks and relishes intimacy. It’s not turned off by the faults uncovered because it’s overcome by the goodness discovered. It’s not a goodness that was alway present,  but one that is created. Love marvels at how the power of grace can both forgive and then correct imperfection. True love can only exist in the presence of Christ, because only He brings the miracle of grace which makes intimate relationship not only possible but marvelous.

True love is truly supernatural. Without Jesus and His grace, there can be acceptance and compromise. We can learn to take the good with the bad. With Him, we can have more. The bad can become good. Without Him, we can never have deepening intimacy because we know we will eventually stumble into darkness too deep to accept. With Him, we can become closer and closer and move deeper and deeper because we know there is no darkness His light can’t penetrate and eliminate.

Not only is true love not possible without Jesus, but being truly loved also requires Him. Without Jesus we are too self-centered, too needy for control, too hopelessly evil to be the vulnerable, accessible persons we must be to be intimately loved. The more we are truly loved, the more willing we are to grant access, to reveal the struggles, to join in the release of them to God.

God is love, not just because He embodies all that love is; but also because He makes love possible between the creatures He created to love and  be loved.

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