“Love one another; as I have loved you.” ( John 13:34) To love everyone, as suggested by that scripture, is to be able to see yourself, your hopes, desires, fears and your ambitions in the lives of everyone around you. My granddaughter, Sarah (a recently returned missionary) in one of her letter’s home wrote a statement about loving others saying: “We are all children of God, we are all brothers and sisters and we need to take care of each other…I have learned on my mission to love people no matter who they are, what they look like, or what they have done. You just love em! She went on to say that, “In one of the wards where I served, a little boy named Sammy (11 years old) got in a fight with his dad, stormed off and in a decision of rage went into his parent’s room took his dad’s gun and shot himself in the head.
We went over to their house and there were 15-20 people in the house cleaning in preparation for the funeral…After we helped, one of the little girls in the family named Kalli asked me, “Where is your mom?” I told her that she is in Utah. She then said, “That’s really sad.” And I told her, “It is sad, but it’s okay because I will see her again.” To which this little girl replied, “Just like I will see Sammy again?” He isn’t gone forever, it’s not a goodbye, just a “see ya later!” But to make it back home (Heaven’s family) we all need to help one another. No one gets left behind, remember this and I promise you that you will have a deeper love for all those you meet.” Jean Anouilh said; “Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.”
Another has said that, “In respect to romantic love, caution rules, because to risk loving another is to risk not being loved in return.” Fortunately most people are willing to take that risk. Once love is found it fills a void that only love can fill. The emotion of true love is much more powerful than the emotion of fear. It is actually an art according to Van Gogh who said, “There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” Fear flees when love comes along because that is when the paint is applied to the canvas. Fear always succumbs to love and that is demonstrated in the way a person will, without a second thought, risk their own life to save a loved one. Even the thought of a loved one being in danger can be a strong emotion that starts the adrenalin flowing. Real and true love always implies sacrifice. Jack Kornfield suggested that in the end just three things really matter: “How well we have lived; how well we have loved; how well we have learned to let go.” A single person may justify their singleness by saying I don’t want to lose my freedom. Freedom from what? Freedom from the responsibilities of marriage and family? Most single people of marriageable age look forward to losing that/their freedom, and look forward to marital responsibilities. They want to be married and to have children. It is a natural desire that I believe is in our very genetic makeup. It would be a very powerful act of selfishness for a person to deny themselves of that natural desire. I remember reading a love story about a sacrifice that was supposedly made in our pre-earth life. The story is about Moses Mendelssohn, the grandfather of the famous German composer, a man who was far from handsome. Along with a rather short stature, he had a grotesque hunchback. One day he visited a merchant in Hamburg who had a lovely daughter named Frumtje. Moses fell hopelessly in love with her. But Frumtje was repulsed by his misshapen appearance. When the time came for him to leave, Moses gathered his courage and climbed the stairs to her room to take one last opportunity to speak with her. She was a vision of heavenly beauty, but caused him deep sadness by her refusal to even look at him. After several attempts at conversation, Moses shyly asked, “Do you believe marriages are made in heaven?” “Yes,” she answered, still looking at the floor. “And do you?” “Yes I do,” he replied.“ You see, in heaven, at the birth of each boy, the Lord announces which girl he will marry. When I was born, my future bride was pointed out to me. Then the Lord added, “But your wife will be humpbacked.” Right then and there I cried, “Oh Lord, a humpbacked woman would be a tragedy. Please, Lord, give me the hump and let her be beautiful.” Then Frumtje looked up into his eyes and was stirred by some deep memory. She reached out and gave Mendelssohn her hand and later became his devoted wife. (shared by Barry and Joyce Vissell.) All marriages are not crafted in heaven, obviously, or there would be fewer divorces.
“You don’t love if you don’t take the beloved’s faults for virtues.” Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. Men and women differ in many ways yet someone has said: “You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself. One thing that I am sure of, is that those things that makes me sad or happy are the same things that make me sad or happy when they happen to my sweetheart and/or to any of my family, even those beyond our family circle. Love, marriage and family is the mixture or combination that holds a society, and even a country together. I believe that where there is love, there is an answer and a solution to every problem that has and ever will confront those who love. If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things that you lack. If you don’t have it, no matter what else one has, it isn’t enough.” It is true that it appears that some marriages are made in heaven but it is also true that all marriages have to be maintained on earth.
Valentine’s Day is the time for some to show their love. For the rest of us, we’ll just continue to show our love, day after day as we have been taught: “As I have loved you, love one another.” That includes those here on earth as well as those who have completed their sojourn and have moved on.
Margaret Atwood said that; ”Eskimos had fifty words for snow because it was so important to them: there ought to be as many for love.” I love this thought as well; “Time moves slowly when we wish it would pass, and rushes by quickly when we want it to last. But despite its rate of travel, time cannot stop or steal the heart that holds within itself a love true and real.” (anon)