LOVE… LOVE… LOVE…
One word that most of the people in all the world utters every single day.
One word that everybody needs.
One word that everybody wants their life to be filled with.
One word that everybody desires to feel and to gain.
But between human beings, love is a relational word. Yes, you can love things that do not love
you back – the sky or a mountain or a painting or the game of chess. But the love of other people
is directional. There is a lover and a beloved – you don’t just love but you love at someone. And
real love is not only about the feelings of the lover; it is not egotism. It is when one person
believes in another person.
We would have a healthier conception of love if we understood that love, like parenting or
friendship, is a feeling that expresses itself in action. What we really feel is reflected in what we
do. The poet’s song is dazzling and the passion powerful, but the deepest beauty of love is how it
changes lives.
There is no exact definition of love because love may vary according to the different
perspectives in lives and in the world. For instance, in Science, love is nothing but chemical
chain reaction inside our brain. These chemicals influence attraction and long – term attachment.
And this attraction is driven by adrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin – the same chemicals that
are released by exciting and novel experiences. Long – term attachment is governed by a very
different set of hormones and brain chemicals – oxytocin and vasopressin, which encourage
bonding. Interestingly, when one person talked deeply to a perfect stranger for 30 minutes, then
stared into each other’s eyes for 4 minutes, felt a deep and lasting attachment. One pair even
went on to marry!
In Filipino, the sign of being in love is when you not only agree to meet their family, but put up
with the criticism, scrutiny, or their huge idiosyncrasies, then you are probably on the track to
true love. That is why they say when you marry you marry someone’s family. If you envision
yourself putting up with their extended relatives forever, then you are definitely a victim of
Cupid’s arrow. In Math, love is somehow denoted by 143, three numbers that were formed to
reciprocal the word “I LOVE YOU”. That’s why when someone texted you “143”, it is no doubt
that, that person is in love with you.
But what is really TRUE LOVE???
Finding our true love should not be as hurry as lightning when there is storm. LOVE is waiting
until we’re ready, until it is right. There is no reason to be hurry on that thing for our TRUE
LOVE is already there, it’s just that God is preparing everything to set that love in no hassle.
Truly, GOD HATH MADE EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL IN HIS TIME. Because when one
person is God – destined for you, love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey
for love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its
destination full of hope.
And I hope those words could change everyone’s way of thinking about LOVE. That it is not a
chemical chain reaction inside our brain. It is not about eye to eye contact and have spark. Love
is neither about being hit by an arrow of Cupid not an expression through mathematical
calculation. Because LOVE, according to the Holy Scripture in the book of I Cor. 13:4 – 8
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It does not dishonour others, it is not self – seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of
wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
There can be no marriage without love because marriage is perhaps the greatest and most
challenging adventure of human relationships. No ceremony can create your marriage; only you
can do that – through love and patience; through dedication and perseverance; through talking
and listening, helping and supporting and believing in each other; through tenderness and
laughter; through learning to forgive, learning to appreciate your differences, and by learning to
make the important things matter, and to let go of the rest. What this ceremony can do is to
witness and affirm the choice you make to stand together as life mates and partners.
At this point, let us now witness the parade of the wedding entourage.
