Love leaves room for everybody to love and be loved unconditionally. It lets you and me be ourselves; love others for who they are; and let them love us for who we are. This love invites us to reveal the parts of ourselves that we've always hidden because there is room for those parts too.
Love shines a light that can't be extinguished, but it also knows that sometimes we're not ready to be loved even at our worst. So, its light comes into our lives into bits until we are ready to receive it in its entirety.
Did I also mention that such love leaves so much room for each one of us to learn and, sometimes, relearn the right ways to love and be loved? It leaves room to unlearn the lie that we're unloveable until we're perfect. It very well knows that we can never be perfect, and that is why it is patient, kind, grace-filled, merciful, and welcomes all.
If you haven't already figured out, I'm not talking about romantic or even brotherly love. I'm talking about the agape love, the unconditional love of God. This love is a version of grace, i.e. we don't deserve it, can't earn it, yet we still receive it. This love is for everyone and will change your life truly.
Only when you've been loved by God, you're secure and able to love others fearlessly and gracefully without expect anything in return. You still mess up and act selfishly occasionally; but you're also able to love in new and better ways. Henri Nouwen (1998) puts it better,
Your love, insofar as it is from God, is permanent... And you can give that permanent love to others. When others stop loving you, you do not have to stop loving them. On a human level, changes might be necessary, but on the level of the divine, you can remain faithful to your love.
So, the next time, you want a refresher on what love does, here it is: love leaves room for each one of us to be brave, scared, kind, sad, happy, joyful, okay, and, sometimes, not okay. It leaves room to be ourselves, to find ourselves, to forgive, to move on, to heal, to be free, to dream, to be beginners, to achieve, and so much more. May you find that kind of love in 2022!
P.S. This post was partly inspired by Chandler Moore's song, "It's Okay".
Works Cited
Nouwen, H. J. (1998). The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom (1st ed.). New York, NY: Double Day. [Link].
(Optional) Further Reading
Goff, B. (2018). Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People. Thomas Nelson. [Link].
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