What Does Love Look Like?
In his book entitled Confessions, St. Augustin of Hippo wrote the following:
What does love look like?
It has hands to help others.
It has eyes to see misery and want.
It has ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of others.
That is what love looks like.”
Recently 50,000 women, men and children joined hearts and hands in Austin. They held signs saying they have heard the cries of women across our land. They gave voice to the voiceless. They gave hope to the hopeless. They were an expression of what love looks like.
After the march, Eremos and First United Methodist Church joined hearts and hands to open the doors to all who marched. “All are welcome!” we proclaimed. Come light a candle of hope. Come write a message to children. Come and sing, opening hearts to the Source of all our hopes and dreams. We sat in silence, we sat in tears, we sat with exhausted bodies, we sat acknowledging the Spirit alive in our world.
Once more we walked – this time holding a lighted candle to witness to the world that each of us is an expression of the Light shining in darkness. We were acknowledging each person as an expression of that Light in our world.
Each year February offers an opportunity to focus on love. It is a love shared with close, intimate family members or friends and relatives. It is a month to let others know of our appreciation for them and our gratitude for their gifts of love for us.
While this is a beautiful celebration, we live in different times now. Our world needs us to open our minds and hearts, our hands and ears to the women, men and children beyond our intimate circles. We are being called to be instruments of love in our cities, our countries and our world. God who is Love draws us into an awareness of love and moves us to express this love by saying “Yes, I see, I hear, I feel and will be a healing instrument of your love in our world.”
This is not a burden to carry. It’s an opportunity to allow Spirit to operate through us while we’re awake and to take over while we sleep.
Hearing the cries of the poor, the refugees, the disenfranchised, the abused, and the fearful, may our days be filled with an empowering awareness of our calling — a knowing of What Is Mine To Do this day.
May we become more intentional each day this month of love to be a channel of Love wherever we find ourselves. May we look into the eyes of all who serve us and see the Eyes of Love gazing back at us. And at the end of the day, may each of us pause with open hands to say ‘thank you for letting me see, hear, feel your cry and for giving me the strength, courage and imagination to respond lovingly.
