What does love look like?
Yesterday, in my quiet time I read Psalm 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” Nothing in that verse says anything about love, but it 
feels like love, doesn’t it? The path of life … filled with joy … that comes from God – who is the source of joy. “If a person pleases God, God will give him wisdom, knowledge, and joy.” Ecclesiastes 2:26 And there’s always “God is love.” 1 John 4:8
“Have you ever wondered … what does love look like? We look at lacy cards with calligraphy and hearts and we say, that’s love. We unwrap a gift in silky paper and we say, that’s love. We open a box to find a treasure inside and we say, that’s love. All those things look like love, and they beautifully represent all we come to think of as love, but what if love looked like none of those things?
Sometimes love:
- Gives up the one day you planned for yourself, to visit someone who no longer has freedom to go wherever they choose.
- Spends hours outside in biting wind and blowing snow to plow your driveway and six others too.
- Provides respite care for parents who never have a day off from caring for special needs children.
- Prepares a home cooked meal for someone who is unable to think about what their family will eat.
- Gets down on the floor to play with kids when you’d rather stretch out in the recliner and watch TV.
- Writes a letter, card or email to someone who needs to be cheered up.
- Sits all evening with someone at the hospital or all day at a chemo center when your list of things to do keeps growing
- Hugs someone for no other reason than to say, “I care.”
- Donates your entire stash of loose change saved for a special occasion, to a neighborhood youth group.
Sometimes l
ove looks messy. Sometimes love is inconvenient. Sometimes love looks nothing like how we’ve defined it. Let’s be clear that God’s ways are higher than our ways and we don’t always understand him, but Psalm 145:17 assures us that “The Lord is just in all his actions, and exhibits love in all he does.”
In our humanness, how often do we become so absorbed in “my dreams”, “my time”, “my growing list of things to do” and ask “When is it my turn?” I caught myself thinking that just for a split second a few days ago and God transported me back to kindergarten where I heard my teacher say, “Do one good turn daily.”
This morning, I read in Matthew 12:34 “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” Do one good turn daily. What do you think? Is there one thing you can do today, that looks like love the way God defines it?
Lord, we
all live entrenched in busyness. Thank you that I have the capacity to live a full, productive life. I don’t take that for granted, Lord. I know it’s because of you that I have breath. Please make me mindful of others and infuse me with your version of love. Give me your heartsight to see people through your eyes and recognize their need. Thank you, Lord that you can use the smallest ‘one turn daily’ to shine your love in a dark world. Remind me that I belong to your family, Jesus, and I represent you. Thank you, Lord, for Proverbs 19:21 that says, I may have many ideas in my head and plans in my heart, but it is your purpose that will stand. Today, is yours Lord. I surrender my ideas and plans to live your purpose.
What does love look like? Maybe it’s not what we think.