I’m sitting here enjoying a quiet house, a cup of coffee, a warm fireplace, and snow falling quickly outside my window. I love snow. There’s something about it that quiets my inner chatter, stops my built-in clock, and erases the to-do list I keep in my head. When it snows, peace and stillness replace the normal rush of daily activities. And it’s beautiful. The white line silhouetting every tree branch and twig. The white cap on bushes and telephone poles and mailboxes. The colors of the winter birds at the birdfeeder standing out in distinct contrast to the white scenery behind them. Snow covers the brown and the flawed and the ugly and the dead. Snow decorates and embellishes and turns the whole world into an ornament.
Kind of like love. When I feel loved, I can relax and let go of striving to please and do. When I know I’m loved, I can stop trying so hard, and just be with someone in peaceful silence or easy conversation. When love has my heart, fear fades and worries wither. And love makes life beautiful. What’s more beautiful than sitting down with a friend for lunch and shared laughter? Or nighttime whispers on the bed with your daughter? Or sharing some pocket change with a stranger who needs it more than you do? Love even takes the ugly parts of life and makes them beautiful, too. Healing the hurts. Harmonizing the hostilities. Bringing hope to the horrible. Love takes what is dull and weaves it into a stunning design. Love makes life meaningful and significant. It brings that special touch, making the ordinary extraordinary, and the mundane exceptional.
1 Peter 4:8 says that love covers a multitude of sins. I’ve always wondered what that means. Does it mean that love overlooks sin? Or does it mean that love can actually remove sin? I believe the latter. In this way, it is much more powerful than snow. Snow falls down and covers up so much. Yet when it melts, the ugly is still there. But love comes and covers and protects. It shows up and reaches out and sacrifices and forgives. It believes, hopes, and endures. And, before you know it, the darkness and the evil are gone. Love hasn’t melted away. It hasn’t departed. It has left a piece of itself behind. For whatever love touches, it changes. Love leaves loveliness in its wake.
Consider this quote from Dorothy Day: “Love and ever more love is the only solution to every problem that comes up. If we love each other enough, we will bear with each other’s faults and burdens. If we love enough, we are going to light that fire in the hearts of others. And it is love that will burn out the sins and hatreds that sadden us. It is love that will make us want to do great things for each other. No sacrifice and no suffering will then seem too much.”
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