A Mother's Day Love Note

Love is such a common word; it is so misused, misunderstood, and all too often tarnished by familiarity. In church, we examine love; in the bible we study love. Everyone wants it and, some of us find it; we treasure it, while at the same time, take it for granted and abuse it.

It is too simple to say that I love you, or that you love me, or even that love is patient, and kind. The word love is not nearly as big as the concept of love. The word fails pathetically to capture my feelings for you - the depth to which I long for you, the width of the serenity you bring to me, and the heights of the hope you generate in me.

I love you.

You have sacrificed endlessly for me, in thought and in action. We have produced life together; we have faced death together. We love each other.

The bible teaches that God is love. We then, are married by love, in the eyes of love, blessed by love, and with every breath and thought desire to be closer to love and to know love better. You introduced me to love, taught me about love, and inspired me to dedicate my life to love. Thanks to you, I have found my salvation in love, and will spend eternity with you and my family in the presence of love.

I love you.

We always joke about how beautiful our children are, despite the ingredients. We are so wrong; they are made of only one ingredient - love. They are perfectly beautiful. They could not be more perfect, or less perfect, because they were gifts to us from God - gifts from love. They are rewards given in love, because of our love, and they deserve our love. They are exactly as they should be, because of their ingredients.

We have lived for thirty-four years, and we have known each other for almost half of that time. We have said that those fifteen years have been the best twelve years of our life. What an insult to love that is! The hard years were not a waste; they were tests from love, and we passed. The trials and tribulations only served to dig in our hearts and solidify in our souls deep wells for love to fill. Jesus said that love is the greatest commandment; Paul said it is greater than faith or hope, and it is written that love changes everything. Even during our hardest days, we were following the commandment, demonstrating the strength of love, and changing because of love.

I love you.

I glorify God for being the source of love; I adore Jesus for revealing love, and I cherish you so dearly for being the focus of my love. I wake each morning to the dream of you next to me, and go to sleep every night with the authenticity of your intimacy. We are friends and lovers; we are partners and allies, and even when we are adversaries, we struggle because the love in between us is so big at times that we can't see around it.

We can't know the future or what praises or struggles are ahead. We do know however, that we are in love and love is in us. The three of us together will celebrate and weep, succeed and struggle, laugh, and cry. We are as we were meant to be - in love.

The words are not enough; I love you.