...thoughts on love

There's nothing like a wedding to inspire thoughts of love and all that God created it to be, and I have had ample opportunity to think on that this spring. :)  But it struck me very poignantly  during the reception at the wedding I was photographing last weekend.  

I couldn't help but smile as I was watching the couples dance...

...watching the look in their eyes as they watched each other.

I was thinking about what a beautiful thing love is when it is given and received as God created it to be.

And how blessed I've been to live in community with a group of believers who understand this.

I've grown up in this love, giving and receiving as I've seen and learned from family and friends.  

But too often, I take this love for granted, forgetting that not everyone has had that privilege. 

Recently, I finished reading a book called The Cross and the Switchblade, an autobiography by David Wilkerson that details the early stages of his work with the gang members in New York City.

My heart aches as I think of the hundreds of thousands of children worldwide that grow up with no concept of what love is, and how beautiful it can be when God is at the center of it.

True love starts and ends with God...we cannot give what we do not have or understand.  The purest, deepest love is found in His unconditional love for us.  Only when we are fully and completely secure in that love can we love others as He intended.  

Weddings are wonderful for causing everyone to slow down and remember once again the things in life that are really important - family, friends...relationships.  

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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..." {1 Corinthians 13:4-8}

"And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love.  But the greatest of these is love." {1 Cor.13:13}

Rachel Elisabeth