What Love Does

This morning I am thinking about the character and conduct of love.  Last week, a colleague was diagnosed with renal cancer.  She was informed that she would need to have surgery to remove one of her kidneys and, subsequently, undergo chemotherapy.  By the time I heard the news, members of my staff had already arranged to have flowers and a card delivered that day.  They were also busy organizing dinners for her family during her hospital stay.  As several of us gathered in my office that afternoon to pray earnestly for this member of our work family, I was moved beyond words.  And, while I sit here reflecting, it occurs to me that this is exactly what love does.  It moves beyond words.  Love cannot rest comfortably on any platform built solely of spoken sentiment or even the most heartfelt well wishes.  It is compelled, by its very nature, to act…to give, to share, to listen, to encourage, to defend, to comfort, to hold up, and to hold on.  Love doesn’t wait for a formal invitation, a commission, or a command.  Wherever it lives, love flows freely, like breathing in and out.  Indeed, when the life-giving, soul-healing “breath” of love is blocked or hindered, there is distress.  So love fights to clear any obstructions between itself and the object of its expression.  It bends, it shifts, it readjusts, it stretches, it waits.  By any means necessary, love always finds a way to manifest itself.  I am so grateful for the many ways that I am daily blessed by love that is deliberate, sincere, unyielding, and directed toward me with purpose.  I have learned that love is a gift that I simply cannot keep to myself.  In turn,  I pray that every day, by my actions, I will be a living and loving example to others of what love does.