Love

Love is greatly misunderstood in large part for one simple reason.  People just don't understand that you can't love something or someone if it lacks the capability or potential to love you back.  For example, I can't rightfully say that I love my skis or that I love my food.  Now if someone or something does have the capability or potential to love you back, you can certainly love it or them.  That is not to say that it necessarily loves you back but you can still love it nonetheless, just as long as it has the capability or potential.  This would be known as unrequited love, which is sadly a tragic aspect of the human condition that is all too real.

Today is Mothers' Day, also known as Mothering Sunday.  We are hopefully all aware of all the sacrifices and great effort our mothers put into rearing us.  Not just the big and obvious things like career decisions and tuition payments but also little things like driving us around to the various things we do or hosting birthday parties or keeping us on task, especially in terms of sleep and wake schedules amongst other seemingly mundane procedures.  All of this is done out of love.

Given how "easy" it seems for a woman to become pregnant, it is easy to forget that the beginning of a life is a miracle.  There are a series of chemical reactions that take place, involving proteins and amino acids, all very specific like locks and keys.  Cells divide but somehow in a seemingly methodical way.  There may be a code that dictates a certain sequence but that code must be replicated perfectly for the newly formed cells every time.  Furthermore, if even one step of this rather complex process does not go precisely as it ought, you will have nothing to show for everything that happened leading up to that point.  In other words, life is a miracle.  Our life was a gift to our mothers, given out of love by one who loves our mothers as well as us.

How do we return that love, given that we are capable and have potential to do so?  We can call them, visit them, be a listening and sympathetic ear when they have something on their mind they want to talk about.  Love is unfortunately a favor that is sometimes not returned but it is something that ought to be shared all the time so let's get ourselves in a sharing mood if we're not there already.

John 17: 20-26