Love Returned

How do you know when someone is loved?
I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen people literally glow after they really know they are loved. I’ve always thought that giving love is easier than accepting it.
Giving love often gives us the illusion of relational control – one that centers on us as we give. But the other is different. When we are given something, especially something we truly Need, suddenly the tables are turned. The illusion vanishes. It was never about us. It’s about God and everyone else who loves us. We are awestruck by this. Slain by wonder. How could we not but love in return? All we must do is open our outstretched hands and hearts.

1 John 4:18-19:
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.

I’ve heard that laughter is the best exorcism we could ever give ourselves. Joy bubbling up and out of our lips has no room for darkness. Humility and perspective ensure this.
If we think we Know what love is all by ourselves, we are gravely mistaken. We learn what love is by opening our hands and accepting it all our lives.

“For that great Love speaks in the most wretched and dirty hearts; only the tone of its voice depends on the echoes of the place in which it sounds.”
― George MacDonald, At the Back of the North Wind

When you know you are loved what tone echoes back inside?
This can tell us far more about ourselves and our need for sheer grace than just about anything else. It smotes us with gentle irresistibility. But we can only accept all this if we’re not holding onto other things. We need free open hands to receive wholeheartedly. This necessitates humility and often leads to quiet wonder.

We are loved, and in turn, we love as naturally as the rain helps grow the flowers.
It is love returned – and how could we not?