What Does Love Look Like?

Early this morning I posted the following on my Facebook:


'If all of life comes down to love, then tell me, what does love look like?' (a line from Arms Wide Open by Misty Edwards)


The first response I got was, "Love doesn't 'look' like anything...a better question is, 'what does love FEEL like?'"


Now, just to clarify, I disagree that the latter question is the better one, and I think after our conversation this morning the person who said that might rethink their position on the matter. However, it did get me thinking...


I grew up being taught that LOVE IS A VERB, and I'm sure we're all familiar with 'people hear what you say but believe what you do' and 'actions speak louder than words', the cliches are endless! But, what if love was just a feeling? What if it didn't really look like anything?


I tell my family and my friends that I love them all the time, and in the grand scheme of things that's true, but what about the moments where I don't feel like I love them? When frustration, hurt, anger, or just plain annoyance is today where yesterday love was? Does that mean that in those moments, however short or long, I stopped loving that person? If all love is is a feeling, then yes, that's exactly what that means. What about the vows 'for better or for worse'?! When bad turns to ugly you're not going to feel very loved or very loving. When the feeling is gone and we cant identify what love looks like, what then? We wonder why people fall in and out of love, love never became more than just a feeling.


It was never supposed to be about falling in love, it's never supposed to be something we fall out of.


I am so grateful that God has never once told me Hes 'fallen in love with me' because that means that somewhere along the way I said or did something to cause that. It also means that there's something I can say or do to make Him 'fall out'. I can't even imagine how crushing that would be. But we do it all the time. Things change, people change. We get tired or bored or it becomes too much work and the feeling goes away. We so easily take that as our cue to leave.


Love, very much, looks like something, because when bad turns to worse and worse becomes impossible be it with your spouse, your friend, or your child, the feeling isn't going to get you through. Love isn't void of feeling, but love void of action, void of identity, void of proof, is dead.


Love very much looks like something, it has to. If not then the majority of us spend most of our lives unloved and incapable of loving.


The unfortunate thing is that statement's probably truer than I want to know.