From The Editor: Choosing Love

By: Kristin Mudge

In "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd, one of the characters laments, "Did you know there are 32 names for love in one of the Eskimo languages? And we have just this one."

One article I found says that Greek has three words for love, ancient Persian has 80, and Sanskrit has 96! No wonder our modern society has so many different versions of what people claim love is to them. We just don't have the vocabulary to simply explain how loving a spouse is different from loving a favorite food.

In 1 John 4:8b we read, "God is love." So, is this just another version of love that we don't have the right word in our language to fully describe? Or what if, in a similar fashion to how God is all-knowing (omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent), and all-pervading (omnipresent), God is all-loving? Perhaps, in God, all forms of love that we haven't the words for are present and fully realized.

Growing up I knew I was loved — by my parents, my siblings, my friends. Each in a different way, but always true. As I matured, I became more aware and more understanding of the different types of love I experienced in the world and in my life. By the time I went to college, I had discovered that some versions of love were not just a given; sometimes loving people is hard. Sometimes you have to choose to love even when you've been hurt by a person or through circumstances.

Alternatively, sometimes you GET to choose love when love isn't necessary. When I met my now husband, I had no idea that what began as friendship-love could become lifelong partnership- love. I remember sitting in the lobby of my dorm thinking about my future when I distinctly heard God say, "I'm with you, whatever you choose." That's when I knew I could choose to love Ian in a new, forever kind of way, and God would bless that decision and our future together.

1 John 4 continues to say in verses 11 and 12, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us" (ESV). We as Christians are called to love one another. It's not a given. Sometimes we must choose to love. Sometimes we GET to choose to love. And through loving one another, we get to reflect a small part of who God is as the all-loving Father.