On the Nature of Love, Part I
What are the differences between faith, hope, and love? Faith and love, at least, are used almost as synonyms. The Oxford Dictionary says of hope, "expectation and desire," and of faith, "trust complete," and faithful, "constant, true to fact."Love, apparently, is commonly defined as "deep care and affection for. Sexual passion." Curiously this is pretty much the same entry as that of the word "lust."
Love is far more than taking pleasure from another. Love is far more than taking pleasure from another. Mothers weep for the lost sons of war.
Look at our home, this universe. Is it not the most instructive example of love?
Is not everyone accepted as they are?
She does not judge, but constantly bears us and nurtures all things.
Love can work counter to desires for enjoyment of our own. Love is like nature.
Growth and life are beautiful, and love is the highest regard and admiration of beauty.
That is why we love a rose more by leaving it uncut from nature; instead of clipping it and killing it.
Nature accepts the roses and thorns both, and she takes us in her arms just the same.
We are nature by substance, and every little particle of us is therefore built of, lives in, and subsists upon pure love. No other ingredient actually exists, in some sense far beyond our capability to understand.
