Love is all you need … (The Beatles)
Love me with all of your heart … (Ray Charles Singers)
I can’t help falling in love with you … (Elvis)
Love will keep us together … (Captain & Tennille)
We sing about love, talk about love, write about love, especially at this time of year. But do we really know what love is?
As diverse as our English language is, it lacks depth in the area of love. As you may be aware, there are six main words for love in the Greek, and they all refer to a different level or aspect of love.
I’m sometimes amazed at what we say we love when what we really mean is that we like something or need it or want it. We appreciate the way something or someone makes us feel, a sense of pleasure or happiness.
But love goes far beyond that.
The greatest love we can ever know has been showered upon us by God when He sent His only Son to die for us. This love is undeserved. It is unexpected. It is awesome and incomparable and beyond imagination. Perhaps we need to be reminded of this as we sit down to write, whether it be fiction or nonfiction. We may not be creating a treatise on the love of God for us, but if we continue to immerse ourselves in the Scriptures and prayer, this worldview will permeate all we do and all we write. It will release hope into a world that is very dark and hopeless.
My prayer for all of us is that we will know the One who loves us and that we will share His love in all we do and say because that is truly all we really need.
Janice Dick writes historical and contemporary fiction, inspirational articles and book reviews. She also edits and presents writing workshops.
Well said, Janice! Don’t you just feel captivated by Jesus’ love? “I can’t help falling in love with Him, over and over, and over and over again ….”