love

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God." - 1 John 4:7

"We have to remember that we look for solitude in order to grow there in love for God and in love for others. We do not go into the desert to escape people but to learn how to find them; we do not leave them in order to have nothing more to do with them, but to find out the way to do them the most good. But this is always only a secondary end. The one end that includes all others is the love of God."
- Thomas Merton

we love because God first loved us, and His love is what overflows from us into other people's lives. we do this because our love is imperfect, and does not last, whereas God's love is everlasting.

it's been awhile since i've been to church, and for some reason today both of the above quotes found their way in front of me, and have reminded me how it is that we come to love each other.

evz