True Love with sprinkles on top

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Valentine’s day is looming. With all those pink and red hearts in the store displays, who could miss it? It looks like love has exploded everywhere! But what kind of love are we talking about?

Many of us are all too familiar with the kind of relationships that mistake infatuation for the real thing. Those relationships start out resembling the LOVE cake in this photo—sweet and attractive, with hearts in all the right places. Then, before you know it, all you have left are the crumbs of a bad relationship—jealousy, manipulation, and hard feelings.

The Bible couple, Samson and Delilah, is synonymous with infatuation and the worst kind of human love. (See Judges, chapter 16.) If you’re not familiar with their story, here’s a quick recap: Samson has been a Nazarite from before his birth—which means that his parents took a vow that he would serve God his whole life. One of the conditions of this vow is that he will never cut his hair. Samson has almost super-human strength, which he attributes to his long, untouched locks.

He falls madly in love with a local girl—Delilah. But there’s a twist: When his enemies want to take him prisoner, they offer her a huge sum of money to find out the secret behind his brawn. She comes right out and asks Samson his secret, and even tells him why she’s asking. He lies to her a few times, but then—because he’s in love with her—tells all, which leads to a haircut and his downfall. It’s hard to believe that Samson could be so gullible, or that Delilah could be so deceitful. But that’s the way of human love without God, divine Love, at the center.

That’s right: To avoid these love-gone-wrong scenarios, and to nurture something more enduring, we have to start with the source of true love—God.

In the biblical book of 1 John it says that God is Love—not just loving, but Love itself. In an article titled, “Love,” Mary Baker Eddy pointed out that, “Love cannot be a mere abstraction, or goodness without activity and power” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 250). On the same page she described what Love’s activity looks like: “It is the tender, unselfish deed done in secret; the silent ceaseless prayer; the self-forgetful heart that overflows.”

In the lives of each one of us, divine Love is continuously expressing the spiritual qualities that every loving relationship needs to thrive. Yes, that includes romantic relationships, but it also includes encounters with friends, family members, and co-workers. Love is even the source of compassion that would lead you to shovel your neighbor’s walk, or to help a complete stranger. Every affiliation that naturally includes spiritual qualities like honesty, genuine affection, and kindness, definitely has divine Love at the center. Love would never include or cause deceit, manipulation, possessiveness, or pain of any kind. Genuine love is expressed by divine Love, and is satisfying, comfortable, and lasting.

This Valentine’s Day, and every day after it, make a point of moving away from the LOVE cake sort of connections, and infuse some real flavor into your relationships. Put divine Love, God, at the center of every desire, activity, and encounter. You’ll love it!

For more ideas about the nature of divine Love, hop over to my Mountaintop Moments page and listen to musician Brandon Heath sing his song, “Love Never Fails.”

Some other thoughts on Love:

Bible:
1 John 4:16
Hebrews 13:1
1 John 5:2

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy:
17:7
225:21-22
242:15
266:18
494:10-11

From the Christian Science Monitor:
Learning God's love through loving

A big thanks to Amy Richmond for the great photo!