Nature of Love

I've been thinking about this concept of love for a while now (and actually wrote this a couple months back), and God recently gave me something concrete.

The reason we love - the reason it is such a powerful emotion is because it is perhaps the closest we get to God's love. It is a window into the heart of the father. So when you love a woman with all your heart, and she permeates the air you breathe.... Thank God. It is because of Him that you can love her so. Seeing her, and experiencing her is like being in God's presence. And loving her (despite flaws) is you reflecting God's love back at her. Loving her glorifies God, because God is love. Even heathens and nonbelievers can experience the awe inspiring love of God. C.S. Lewis said (in one of his books) that a man will swim across a wide channel of water to be with the woman he loves. Love is that strong. God is love. Because He loves, we love. And when we love the woman, we recognize that we are blessed. God is showing His love for us by treasuring us with this woman who triggers that deepest love inside of us! So by loving her, we wind up loving God even MORE because we recognize a little more the depth and purity of His love for us.

This also keeps us in check, and can help us aid others..... How can we possibly love the Gift more than the Giver? Even Jesus went to lengths to explain this. Repeatedly in the Gospels we hear Him say "Not I, but the Father who sent me." He also tells us that He abides in the Father, and the Father in Him. It's not about the Gift!! The Gift is to be enjoyed (thoroughly) but ultimately lead us back to glorifying the Father.