The
love of your life
by Dennis Heaney, President
The Christophers
When was the last time you
thought about your first love?
Unless you actually married
her or him, the odds are that your memories of falling in love for the first
time only come back to you when you are reminded of that person in some
way. Perhaps you’ll be clicking the
remote one night and find a movie you saw together (maybe even at a drive-in,
if you are old enough). Or you might hear
a song on the radio that you danced to at the prom. Or maybe it’s Valentine’s Day.
Most people find the trip
down memory lane pleasant if bittersweet.
It always seemed to me that what made that first love so irresistible
was not just how she or he looked, acted and spoke, but how we felt and how we saw
ourselves when we were together. Like so
much of our lives, the special person who became our first love was, in some
way, a reflection of our deepest desires and needs, however dimly felt or
understood.
But, it’s also true that
there’s something of a misnomer about the phrase "first love." The fact is, we loved and were loved long
before we were swept up in that first starry-eyed romantic moment.
Our parents didn’t just give
us life, they gave us love. To a
newborn, the face of love is Mom. And
love is also the protecting arms of Dad.
And all the others who cared for us in our first days and years –
grandparents, aunts and uncles and other relatives – they all expressed their
own love for us. And when we were a few
years older, a lot of us felt the anguish of unrequited love when we had a
crush on a teacher or someone like the little red-headed girl who caused
Charlie Brown such heartache in the Peanuts cartoons.
Little by little, person by
person, giving and receiving, we learn love – its power, passion and, yes,
pain. We come to understand the truth of
Yet, however close we may be
over the course of our lives with spouses, family and friends,
I believe that there is always a part of us that’s waiting for something
else: a Spirit who will fulfill our
longing and complete our being. We long
for the source and center of all love.
We long for God. The great
twentieth century Christian writer C. S. Lewis wrote
about that moment when we finally embrace the Spirit of Love: "God will look to every soul like its
first love because He is its first love."
First love or last love, all
real love flows from God.
It has been said before, but
I’ll say it again, "God is love."
The ability to love is His gift to each one of us on every day of our
lives, including Valentine’s Day – but don’t forget the flowers.
For a free copy of the
Christopher News Note: Say it with love, write: The Christophers,