Hunger for Love

            Love. By definition love is an intense feeling of deep affection or a deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone. At first, I looked up the definition of love to get a general idea of what society depicted love as in an academic sense. I was not surprised to find that the multiple definitions where stark, impersonal, and stagnant. As I read through the various definitions of what love is I found myself feeling ill at ease. Never once was there mention of love in conjunction with spirituality or religion. We love because God first loved us. We know and understand love because God gave us the ability to love. In my mind, love itself is rooted deep in the Lord.

 Starting from infancy we are taught depictions of what “true” love is through social media and pop culture. People strive to find love whether it be through means of family, friends, materialistic items, or other entities. With the idealization of love comes short satisfaction followed by a vast array of heartache and pain. Love has an intoxicating effect on people giving them the power of imagination and hope. It has become a versatile matter that takes shape in many forms. Though in retrospect, I have lived a minimal amount of time in the grand scheme of life, I feel as though I have already learned so much about love through relationships, family, and media. But I often wonder am I searching for the right kind of love? Is the type of love that we all search for the kind of love that the Lord tells us to exemplify and find? Or do we fill our souls with an artificial love that at the end of the day leaves us unsatisfied and discontent?

Currently in my bible I have pictures of my family so that when I open the pages the first thing I am reminded of is them. The pictures put me at ease and fill me with feelings of contentment, warmth, and safety. They are my home and reassurance. I trust in my family with everything that I am. I love them unconditionally. “Unconditionally” is a word that I often hear when people are describing something they feel passionate about. In church I grew up hearing that God loves us unconditionally. But if God loves us unconditionally then do I really understand the meaning of unconditional love? I would like to think yes and I would hope that the love I feel for my family is the same love that the Lord feels for all his children; indescribable, undeniable, and everlasting. Yet his love is greater than any love I can articulate and image. The amount that He loves us is not comprehendible to our minds.

Watching the people of Kenya, I see love every day! Two days ago we went to the woman’s meeting in Kandaria and were taught basket weaving from the local women. Women’s meetings are held every Monday under an enormous tree within the Kandaria community. In anticipation of the meeting, we prepared our Lou phrases of “hello”, “how are you”, “God Bless You”, ect. From what we had seen from the community thus far we felt confident of what was to come; friendly greeting, laughter, and LOTS of hand shaking. However, we were not prepared for the intense greeting we were actually given. As we rounded the corner to the big tree we saw the woman all sitting conversing and tediously working on baskets under the tree. The moment we came into sight there was an immediate change in atmosphere. Women jumped out of their seats and began chanting, dancing, laughing, and singing at our welcoming. Our hands were grabbed and we were thrown into the middle of the group being hugged, kissed, and danced with. We could do nothing but laugh and be joyous with them. After minutes of being loved on we were seated in chairs in front of all the women. They looked at us with eager smiles anticipating what we would say and do. After introducing ourselves we were sent out among the women to learn their ways. Sadly, I will have to admit that basket weaving is not my strong suit and I probably messed up hours of work but still they sat patiently with me showing me the correct hand work. Never once did they stop smiling or grow short with me. They loved me. When I think about the type of love that the Lord wants us to embrace and epitomize I would think that it would be an unconditional love similar to the one that the woman displayed to me. Though they had known us for only five minutes they accepted us calling us “sisters of Kandaria”. They seek to live in the Lord’s love with every inch of their being.

As I continue to live amongst the community one of my prayers and hopes is to truly understand and seek unconditional love through the Lord. In 1 Peter 4:8-10 the Lord says “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms”. I offer you to do the same. Find the Lord’s love and wear it like a cloak of light, covering you from head to toe (Jesus Calling Devotional). Do not fear being vulnerable by loving others for the Lord says in 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us”. Remember God was your first love, gaze at him and learn how he loves, and with his guidance together we will learn to love people through his lenses and it will please Him.