Love ...it begs the question...

What is love?

The bible describes it in 1 Corinthians 13 as:

If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

New International Version (NIV)

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

After reading this with much attention to each word, letter, and implication possible, I ask what is love?

I have been married. Twice. I have been divorced. Twice. If we loved each other, why aren't we together? Was the love from one person not enough to sustain the relationship? Essentially these verses say that nothing you do, if not done with love, means anything. So, THAT is love. Love is in and of everything. When I brush my son's teeth before school, it's love. As long as it's done in love. I remember as a child my grandmother would let me paint her toes. I loved it. I never felt forced and I felt so rewarded being that she allowed me to do it. The things you do because you care, that is love. Things you do out of obligation or responsibility are nothing if you don't care to do them.

So, now I consider that everything I've done, has it been in love? Going forward, if I cannot honestly do something in and of love, I know that it is a waste of my time.

I recently watched the movie "Collateral Beauty" starring Will Smith as a man who lost his daughter and subsequently lost himself. He wrote three letters, one to death, one to love, and one to time.

Death comes in an instant. You physically die... once, but if memories remain, did you die or did your physical body pass away whilst your being is passed on in the memories and stories those left behind will share?

Time is infinite. It is uncertain, but we know it's there. It's just... happening. We only exist within it. If I couldn't tell you "when" I was born, would you believe I ever existed?

But love. It is timeless and never dies. Love exists before and after death and runs the span of times.

So I encourage you to love. Unsparingly, unexpectantly, and unrestricted. It is the only thing that is forever.

God IS love.

So today, I encourage you to love. Genuinely, unsuspectingly, unselfishly, and often.

I have been married. Twice. I have been divorced. Twice. Did I love them? If we shared love, why aren't we together? Can love stand alone in a relait