May. 27, 2022

Person, Place or Thing

This reflection has caused me to rethink the idea of Love. The dictionary used to look up the word love indicated that “love” is a noun. A noun, as I was taught, is a person, place or thing. During a recent meditation the word love became front and center in my thoughts. The way it surfaced went something like this, “love loves constantly.” The next thought that came to my mind indicated that no matter how love is treated it always returns love. As I meditated on this idea the words recorded in the scriptures of what Jesus said while being crucified, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” seemed to offer a verification of this idea.

As I reflect on the idea that love, being a noun is a “person, place or thing,” I hold up for your consideration the following. If love is a person then do you know of anyone today that always returns love no matter how they are treated? I can’t begin to imagine nor do I want to imagine what it would be like to be crucified on a cross. The absolute pain and suffering just to have nails driven through one’s wrists and feet not to mention the psychological pain of the anticipation of such an event would be overwhelming to say the least. 

The scripture also indicates that God is Love. In Young’s Literal Translation of first Corinthians chapter thirteen, also called the love chapter, “the” is placed before the word love or “the love” and that spoke to me that a person was “the love.” When Jesus said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father” may point to the idea that Jesus is God in human flesh or better said, the love person. Then the words following “the love” indicated its descriptive practice. “The Love is long-suffering, it is kind, the love doth not envy, the love doth not vaunt itself, is not puffed up, doth not act unseemly, doth not seek its own things, is not provoked, doth not impute evil, rejoices in the truth; all things it bears, all it believes, all it hopes, all it endures. The love never fails.

If we are made from this Love, then perhaps we are the “place” where this love abides. If we are not aware that this love abides within us then it makes perfect sense when we decide not to act from its inner presence. If love is a “thing” then perhaps that is what  makes it real. After all if it wasn’t a thing then there would be no reason to write this entry to reflect on this thing called love.

So Love endures all things no matter what is done to it or what is said about it. Love loves all because all exists within Love. That may be a difficult truth to embrace these days because presently in our world war has broken out, children have been raped and murdered and some of the world’s leaders have chosen to kill rather than to love. This murdering desire has found its way into various communities in the United States in recent days. As a result because of the grief families are experiencing, there is much fear and sorrow and anger and depression.

It is a very large challenge to love those who despitefully use you and to not return evil for evil. However, if it is true that love endures all things and God is Love then I hold up for consideration that our life on mother earth in the midst of these horrendous circumstances is best confronted with forgiveness. That is not to say that those committing such atrocities should go unpunished. But if we as the victims of such terror ever expect to get beyond our pain then the act of forgiveness must play a vital role in our healing. Such a decision is best arrived through prayer and meditation. Once more I echo the words of Jesus from the cross, “Father Forgive them for they know not what they do!” If we can find it within ourselves to forgive then we just might be the demonstration of the person, place and thing that is Love for Love Loves Constantly no matter what!