On only my third try, I succeeded in sending Q an electronic Valentine with a nice picture of two elephants. I don't know where the other two went: maybe nowhere. Or maybe they went to someone else, someone who will be a little puzzled at the warmth of my regard.
Well, that's okay. It is better to add a little too much to the sum of the world's love than to add too little. And there are so many different kinds of loves besides the romantic one everyone wants at this time of year. Whether you have that love or another, one thing is certain: you don't have to live without any love all, unless you want to.
I am not lonely these days. But I have been, in my day. And I will be lonely again someday -- either lonely or dead. If I am dead, I will certainly not be lonely; I will be alive in Christ, and surrounded by all the beloved souls I have missed so mightily since they left me here. And, if I am left here again, I will find ways to let love grow in my life -- not a big love, maybe, but lots of little ones. It will be my responsibility to bring this about, if I want it. It is I who must walk lovingly in the world, if I want the world to love me back.
This is the love I can do something about. Being swept off our feet isn't something we can arrange. But love causes love, in the human family: love of any kind makes further love more likely. Bemoaning the love we don't have leads us exactly nowhere. Joy in the love we do have brings us more love and more joy.
Because love isn't really something we have; it's something we are. God created the world out of love, a physical expression of the love that makes up the relationship we call the Holy Trinity. We still experience the Big Bang of it -- scientists can even measure its lingering vibrations. As long as we're here at all, we tingle with it, too.
Loved Walked In
by George and Ira Gershwin
Love walked right in and drove the shadows away
Love walked right in and brought my sunniest day
One magic moment and my heart seemed to know
That love said "Hello" though not a word was spoken.
One look and I forgot the gloom of the past;
One look and I had found my future at last;
One look and I had found a world completely new
When love walked in with you.
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