The Necessity of Love

We are consciously designed to give and receive love. In the beginning, God craved love, and that is why He created humans. We are the only part of God's creation that can love Him. As the psalms attest, the rocks and trees and even the animals can praise God in their own way, but they cannot love Him as we do. God knew that in order to love, we would have to be like Him, so He made us in His own image. The likeness of God within us gives us the ability to love, but it also gives us the same craving for love that God has. Love is like the food of God—it is a perfect nourishment that never runs out and constantly makes us more and more like our wonderful Creator.

Love builds on itself and sustains itself. All of us have multiple relationships in our lives that fuel us, and God is no different. God has countless souls to love Him, and He encourages us to love each other, because that only increases our love for Him. The more we love someone—even God—the more we love in general, and that love overflows into every relationship in our lives.

Occasionally I find myself feeling alone and isolated. While there may be people in my life who like me and compliment me and smile at me, I have trouble finding anyone whose love runs deep enough to help me when I am in trouble. I feel scared and alone, and God's love feels like a tenuous lifeline that I could accidentally sever with no one to help me sustain it. Whenever this happens, God will inevitably help me connect to a single person who is willing to step in and support me in my weakness. That one loving connection becomes like a strong shining thread, holding me up when I had felt about to fall. I cling to it, and it makes me feel steadier and gives me the courage to seek out someone else to reinforce that love. And then with each new connection another beautiful thread is added until I have a strong rope of love that sustains me and gives me the courage and energy to give more and more of my own love in support of others. When I am loved by many, I am not easily shaken by the trials and tribulations of the world because I am at my strongest.

I wish that we were not so guarded and that we did not devote ourselves to transitory tasks instead of nurturing our relationships. I wish we could make ourselves vulnerable enough to let others truly love us and that we could be selfless enough to give more deeply of ourselves. When we do, we become stronger and stronger because we are doing what God made us to do. Through our love we also strengthen each other's connections to God, bringing us all closer to the one who gives us life. Love is our highest purpose—more important than our careers, our material prosperity, our personal security, or any other obligation we have in life. I find that the more I give and receive love, the healthier and stronger I feel within myself. For this reason, I endeavor to find more opportunities to share love with others, and I wish that everyone would make the same commitment so that we could all prosper together.