Love

I came across this beautiful quote about love while reading The Imitation of Christ awhile back:

‎"Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger or higher or wider; nothing is more pleasant, nothing fuller, and nothing better in heaven or on earth, for love is born of God and cannot rest except in God, Who is above all created things."

I think that our world today forgets from where love originates - God. Love is born of God because God is Love, and it is only through God where we can more truly experience the fullness of love to which we are all called.

So then I was catching up on my Magnificat readings yesterday while praying and came across these Scripture passages:

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. (1 John 4:7-10)

and

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us... Moreover, we have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world. Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. In this is love brought to perfection among us. (1 John 4:11-17)

We have been given the greatest gift - to be loved by God and to be able to experience this gift with others - but it's important that we let God into the equation so that we can more truly experience the gift of love with others. Here's how I understand it:

Yea, this is nice... but compared to this:

Imagine trumpet blasts from all the angels... it's hard to draw that when I am not skilled at drawing with a laptop mouse, but hopefully you are getting the image I'm seeing.

And since bulleted lists are fun, in summary:

• God is love. Love is God.
• Love (i.e God) is the greatest gift we are given by God. 
• Jesus (i.e. the greatest gift EVER) is perfection in depicting God's love for us here on earth and is a preview to the love we will bathe in when we get to Heaven. 
• We are all called to love as God loves.
• The more we love others, the more we are with God and God is with us.
• We need to keep God in the equation of love so as to truly experience the gift He has given us.