What is Love?

Here is another "love letter".It is from my niece Amber..
the one who gifted me with "Rachels heart"......

Suzette and I were talking on the phone recently, and she mentioned how each of us think that our relationship with Rachel was particularly special. It's so true. I'm one that knows I was particularly blessed to have Rachel in my life. Our relationship was a little different than most cousins. Sometimes I was like a big sister. Sometimes I was a Sunday School teacher. Sometimes I was a camp counselor. Always we were friends.

Rachel loved to laugh and loved to make people laugh. We shared an appreciation for the humor in quite a few SNL sketches, and for whatever reason, since Suzette offered for me to write about love this month, I can't kick the Night at the Roxbury song out of my head.

"What is love?"

Okay so here's what I know. Love is a word that's thrown around a lot these days. People love (luv, lurve, loooooove) things, people, pets, attention, drugs, money, music, reality TV, and on and on and on it goes. Then there is a more romantic, "true love" kind of love that people consider. You know, when you find your soul mate. Prince charming.

God doesn't label love. There aren't sub categories for LOVE in 1 Corinthians 13. It tells us what love is. It tells us what we are or are not if we don't have that love. It's not about works. Not about generosity. Not about faith alone. It's 13 verses, and I know you've probably seen it, but for easy reference, here goes:

¹ If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

It makes my heart happy to know that these were Rachel's favorite verses. I think all of us that were involved with her understood her passion for life. We understood that when she said "I love you," they weren't words thrown around. She saw examples of great love in her life, and she experienced the love that surpasses all understanding in her relationship with God.

Here's what I think about love. It, like all things, is a gift from God. Without love, there is no faith. Without love, there cannot be hope. That's why it's the greatest.

That doesn't mean that there will never be trials. I know that God loves Suzette. I know that God loves Rachel. God loves me, and He loves you, too. I know the pain that I experience with random memories, and the feeling I get in my chest, and I cannot even try to imagine how it feels for others. That pain is love. In our loss, there are lessons. Suzette's love for Rachel, her faith, her love, despite grief, loss, and pain has created this place to share what she has learned through love. That's why we all read it. It is amazing to see God's love present even in loss.

Losing Rachel impacted my life in a very big way. There aren't words to even begin to tell about it. Since that September, though, I can tell you that there is now love in every sunrise, because I think of her. There is a new kind of love in Praise and Worship music at church. The words touch me differently than they used to. Rachel's senior picture is on my fridge, so there is love every time I walk in my kitchen. There is love in every memory, even when it hurts. There is love in remembering Wayne's World quotes or someone mentioning the need for more cow bell (I know, but it's true...).

God gives us the ability to really love. To experience true love. If you don't know what that feels like; if you are searching everywhere to find love, and you're finding emptiness, I encourage you to look to God. That's why Suzette has been a pillar of strength for so many. That's why hearts are so powerful to our family. There is so much love in seeing that simple shape. Not because we love perfectly, but because we know that perfect, forgiving, merciful, Agape love is available to us.

We may not be capable of loving perfectly, but in the meantime, I'm happy to know where I can find that perfect love. Really love those around you. Appreciate that God loves us despite our faults. Not just an "i luv u" kind of love, but a perfect, forgiving, selfless, patient love.

Love never fails.