Learning Love

I've been thinking lately about love. I've seen some people really good at it. They love people well. They think about others first. I want that trait to mark my life. Below is a poem that came out of some of those thoughts. 

Teach Me How to Love

Scornful eye cast

     on one less along

Perception of being

     farther along

Hidden rejection of

     someone I should love

Crying, “I want to know You.”

     But You are Love,

The command You give,

     “One another, love.”

Not searching for

     poetry, praise, A’s

“Feed Me, Clothe Me, Visit Me.”

     This to the least of these.

Greatest of all

      used towel and bowl

On knees, washing feet.

     Love with heart, mind, body, soul.

Though I’ve everything

     lacking this I’m nothing

You look at heart

     not at shell

Give not merely words

     but life as well

This, this will outlast all.

     While else falls to dust.

God, my God,

     we can because You have.

God, my God,

     teach me how to love.

I was reading in Ephesians 3:14-19, verses I'd read dozens of times before, and was struck by them, especially by verse 19, Paul's prayer for the church in Ephesus, "to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." 

That's it. 

I long for a full life, a rich life, an abundant life. One with no regrets. One that is significant. One that is not wasted. I want to experience for all my days the fullness of God. And this is the fullness of God...knowing the love of Christ. 

Searching for the word "know" in a Bible concordance, I found that it means to learn to know, to perceive, to feel. It even can denote intimacy between a husband and wife. This knowing of Christ's love is more than intellectual knowledge. It is a real knowing, an encountering.  

If I ever hope to love others, I need to know His love first (1 John 4:19). I have been praying Ephesians 3:18-19 for myself and others; "Lord, let me know Your love that I may be filled with the fullness of God." 

Verse 20 gives me hope. He "is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think." He is able to do it. Amen.