Guideposts.com - Advice from a Loser: "Love at First Sight"

With Valentine’s Day coming up soon, I thought it might be appropriate to write about “love” this week.

Love can make you do crazy things. It’s brought many a grown man to his knees. And it can make you feel on top of the world or in the depths of despair. Sometimes simultaneously. The human heart is a complex, but wonderful thing.

I personally believe that the word “love” is so misused and overused in society today. It’s not unusual to hear someone say, “Oh, I love that pair of shoes!” Really? You want to use the word “love” to describe the way you feel about a pair of stilettos? It’s crazy how lightly we sometimes take the word that inspired one of the most beautiful passages of scripture ever written in my opinion, 1 Corinthians 13; the love chapter.

But I can truthfully say that I do believe in “love at first sight.” I’ve experienced it myself.
On October 13, 2000, after quick a traumatic delivery, a skillful doctor placed a 4 pound, 7 ounce premature baby boy in my arms and—immediately—I was head over heals in love. It was then that I truly knew what unconditional love was—because I felt it in an instant. And it helped me to see a parallel between our human ability to love as parents and God’s love for us as His children.

See, I know why I love my husband. I can give the list of reasons. But that baby—my son Noah—had done nothing to make me love him. In fact, he had only been in the world a matter of minutes. And if anything, the months and months of morning sickness, extra weight, sleepless nights and body aches would prompt anything but feelings of love. And yet as I held that little squirming baby in my arms for the first time, I would have given my life for him without a second thought. My love for him was pure and complete. It was unconditional. And it really was “love at first sight.”

How incredible it is to think that God views us the same way. When He looks at us—despite all the things we might do that would prompt anything but loving feelings from anyone else—His love for us is pure and complete. He says that before He even formed us in our mother’s womb, He knew us. And loved us.

When you think about that reality, how can you not feel wonderfully blessed?
I say I have been in love three times in my life. The first time I married him. The second time I birthed him. The third time I adopted him.

My wish for each of you reading this today is that your lives will be filled with much love! Happy Valentine’s Day.