Column by Jim Bishop
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“The Fourteen of February every year
It happens all over this planet,
For on this day love melts the heart
That’s usually taken for granite.”
So what else is ode? That’s a poem that isn’t new.
Johnny Tillotson crooned his way to the top ten in 1960 with “Poetry in Motion” . . . “see her gentle sway. A wave out on the ocean could never move that way.” Aaah, they don’t express lyrical sentiments like that anymore (thank goodness, you say?).
The Playmates inquired, “What is Love?” in 1959 and suggested it was “five feet of heaven and a pony tail.” Neigh . . . how many people today even know what a pony tail is or what a hairstyle has to do with love?
I do know that my first personification of love, in third grade, had freckles and strawberry-blonde hair pulled back in a pony tail. I had no idea she even liked me until one fateful day on the school bus she told me she wanted to tell me a secret, and in front of astonished peers planted a kiss on my pristine cheek.
As this childhood romance began to unfold, my parents even drove us to the County Theater in Doylestown to see Walt Disney’s animated classic, “Pinocchio.” If I am making this up, may my nose, already more than of sufficient size, start to grow.
This innocent, platonic liaison eventually fizzled, but it sure felt fine at the time, stirring childhood wonderment of what might be in store further on down lover’s lane.
Whatever our age or setting, love is in the air, everywhere, like Bob Lind’s 1966 poetic ditty, “Elusive Butterfly,” expresses. But how and when it comes to earth and alights is what matters. And it behooves me to recognize and to respond when love manifests itself, often at unexpected times and places.
The bottom line: nothing quite compares to having someone say, “I love you.” I don’t think we can ever say that too often, unless it really isn’t genuine.
“‘Tis simple to select a card from
those displayed upon a shelf,
But much more meaningful to proffer
Is the homemade kind, yourself.”
Love is a two-way street. That’s not a novel idea, but I need frequent reminders. Love multiplies when you give it away, and when that happens, I often find myself being blessed in turn.
Love often reveals itself in the commonplace. It might be love when my longsuffering spouse silently, dutifully cleans the dried toothpaste out of the bathroom sink, but why don’t I resolve to clean out those nasty hard and scour the toilet while I’m at it – and leave the seat down too, thank you?
Love hits me between the eyes upon opening my bedroom drawer and finding freshly-laundered t-shirts, dainty unmentionables and socks. I don’t say “thank you” often enough for this regular act of loving service.
Might “going the second-mile” even require this macho male to learn to operate a steam iron and actually press my slacks that magically appear in the clothes closet, ready for daily wear? Wonders never crease.
(And while we’re at it, I will publicly admit: After tiring of asking me in the morning, “You’re going out dressed like THAT?”, Anna puts out my work clothes every morning – shirts, pants and socks that actually match).
What would this helpless, hopeless romantic do without her? I love you, babe.
“Human love takes many forms
On display for all to see
But greater still, John 3:16,
God’s valentine to me.”
Each of us has a basic need to experience genuine, unconditional love. It begins by first accepting God’s offer of his gift of love to us. Once that happens, we are better equipped to love our neighbor, near and far, even as we accept and love ourselves.
The Apostle Paul, in I Corinthians 13, outlined “a more excellent way,” declaring that without displaying love, our words mean little.
Love in action is sowing seeds of kindness, showing compassion, mercy and justice (fairness) in our daily dealings – beginning with those closest to ourselves – cheerfully giving our financial resources to charitable causes and our time and energy to worthy service projects. We don’t have to go overseas either (across the street may be the place to start).
Human love is sparked and sustained by divine love. Jeremiah 31:3 (NRSV) reads, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”
And that, dear hearts, is a love that knows no bounds.
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