1 Corinthians 13:4-7 — Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (ESV)

I should be writing this piece in February I guess … but I was thinking about my sweetheart the other day, and it overflowed. I was thinking about love, and how my understanding of it has changed over the years that Myra and I have been together. Actually, as I thought about it, I got another lesson in God’s Humility 101 course.
You see, I thought that by now I’d got some sort of handle on this love thing … which was pretty clever, eh? But then I got to thinking some more. You see, my first marriage failed after thirteen years. And it was because I didn’t have a clue what love was. Myra would tell you that if 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 had been a love test, I would have failed on every point when we first met. No, I take that back, she wouldn’t — she does know what love is.
Together, we have learned some things about love. We have “unlearned” the popular romantic notion that love is all about feelings. We have learned to resist the foolishness of the idea that love somehow depends on looks. We know that for each of us the values of love are not about ourselves but, just as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, it’s about “each other”. Most of all we have learned that love is about committed daily hard work.
Those are all good truths … And when I look back to my twenty year old self (or even thirty or forty year old me!) he didn’t know any of them.
I’ve got two things on my mind. What have I still got to learn about love, and why is this on my mind just now?
About that first thing … There was so much I didn’t know about love when I was younger. My understanding has changed so much. It gives me an uneasy feeling that perhaps there’s so much more to come! Perhaps, as with so many other things, I’ve got a lot more to learn than I already know?
Then that second thing. I never know what these pieces are going to be about each day. I do know that they usually have something I need to think about. I’m ok with that today. Love, especially in our own relationship, is something Myra and I think about — and talk about — quite a lot. Something that bothers us a lot is the way that marriage, in so many ways, is falling apart. So another reminder to me that love is a constant education can only be good!