Do we really know what love is until we have stared into its ugly face? This world may dress it up in crimson gowns and dark capes of passion or teary-eyed looks and half-answered promises of acceptance, of tolerance, but that is not love. It does not whimper for notice or pout when it stands unfulfilled.
The world makes love a cheap thing; a weak thing too caught up in its own self-satisfaction that it curdles into Narcissism.

All forms of true love, whether romantic, platonic, or familial, share one core at its center: sacrifice.

Love wears latex gloves in the form of a grandmother caring for her husband as she cleans his stitched-up knee that looks like a rotten walnut. But her hands do not waver at the task and joy still shine in their eyes.

Love carries a strawberry milkshake from Chick-Fil-A seeking to comfort a friend overwhelmed by the news of a grandfather hanging between eternal life and death.

Love catches vomit from the mouth of a feverish daughter as it carries her upstairs to the bathroom to help her.

Love does not flee at the first sight of trouble, nor pamper itself with sighs after someone who inflates its ego. Love draws the line against apathy and faux tolerance as it refuses to leave a loved one in their hurt. Love chooses the harder and bloodier path if it means the care of another, and regardless of what form it takes, it is only complete when soaked in humble selflessness. No one embodied this more than Christ, the sacrificial lamb.

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” ~1 Peter 2:24

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” ~Romans 5:8

We were not worthy of love and completely deserving of hell, but God sent his only son to die for his enemies. Love came not to say “have your fun” and leave, love came to pluck the sword from your hand and pull you screaming from out of the enemy’s ranks. Let us seek after him who is Love, and learn to live as he does.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” ~1 John 4:7-9