Love and Wings

This weekend I am home in Philadelphia to be in the wedding of my beautiful friend, Melissa.  Amidst the dinners, dresses, nails, hair, make up, vows, arm locking, toasts, and dances, I’m reminded that these days are really about one thing—love. 

When I think about the significance of love and marriage, what I believe is of most importance is what we do with that deep love, should we find it.  How does it compel us?  To where does it take us?  Deep love, such in marriage, creates a risk in our relationship with God, as Paul warned us, because our “interests are divided” (1 Corinthians 7: 34).  But deep love also gives us great opportunity. 

“Perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18).  Love gives us confidence and courage.  It lets us go to unknown places and take on uncomfortable circumstances because we know, at the end of the day, someone is there for us.  Surely, this Goliath-facing love comes from the Lord—“we love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).  In fact, God doesn’t just give us that love, He is that love (1 John 4:16).  But one of the great joys of life is that He has given us, humans, the ability to experience that same love with one another.  “If we love one another, God lives in us and His love his made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).  We get to experience God’s love in each other!  And because this perfect love leaves us without anything to fear, we don’t have to be preoccupied with the other person.  We don’t have to be constantly focused on winning their approval, worrying that we might lose it and be left alone.  Because when the love is real and deep, we don’t have to be scared.  Instead, we are free to take risks, especially ones which will see the gospel of Christ and His kingdom advanced on earth.

And so in love—whether manifested in marriage, soul-connecting friendships, or family bonds—we have two choices: we can let it distract us from our relationship with our Savior, or we can let it give us wings to fly to places we might not have gone.