What does Love look like?

What is it, namely, that connects the temporal and eternity, what else but love, which for that very reason is before everything and remains after everything is gone.

— Works of Love, Søren Kierkegaard

There is this feeling of immense calm about him. A rich smile comes often to those that look at him. But even when he is not smiling, there is so much gentleness and forgiveness in his features, I could not help but see Love behind his glistening eyes, full of eagerness and compassion.

When you talk to him, it feels as if his arms are always open and ready to embrace you, regardless of what news you bring him. Bring him news of the death of a loved one and he will embrace you with both of his arms, and he will hug you tightly. He will shed tears with you, but you can see a smile in his eyes, a countance showing not a trace of fear, but rather this quiet internal joy. This joy beams from his lips and shows that the tears falling from his eyes are not of sadness, but of the most meaningful happiness! I cannot not help but smile at this, and feel an urge to cry joyful joyful tears as I see him continuing to embrace this person. One could have thought that this person was his own child judging by how intimate and loving, and how gentle their embrace appeared!

And how deep in despair this person was before meeting him, before this embrace!

I will never see this loved one again! Death has taken her and she will never live as she once had! Life for her is over, as it will be for me aswell soon! Why all this suffering! Why go through life if there is death at the end! What possible purpose can this serve? If there is a God, there should be no death, and there should be no suffering!

No word was uttered as the man hugged this child so tightly in his arms, but how many words of comfort were said! This overwhelming feeling of being loved by someone pierced this child so deeply in the heart - the feeling of being embraced wordlesssly, unconditionally, and yet lovingly, made him breathless. The warmth of this man's body filled the child, and he could feel the intense affection and real care shown towards him. The child knew that this man would not let go until every word was said, until every word from the heart of the man entered into the child's soul.

But what were these words? If only I knew!

Those people that are whipped and raped, those children made disfigured and unrecognisable by numerous tortures, war and death! All those hungry people and all those fat and rich ones, the wealthy and poor! What a terrible world! How could this ever have been planned by a God so Loving and so Gentle?

Look though at the scene before the embrace! The man did not know the child, but at the same time he knew everything about him. He knew that he Loved this child, and that this child, like every other is important and treasured above so dearly, and treasured above his comprehension.

And he saw this child a long way off. He saw a one that was craving Love, comfort, and answers to all the Questions that ate at him. He saw a one that was anxious and afraid, lost and alone, parentless and forsaken, hungry and thirsty, naked and cold. He saw a one suffering, and he saw this child a long way off, and he ran to this child. There was no hesitation within the man concerning this, it was immediate and full of Loving intent. In this man's mind, losing time was meaningless as a thought; gaining time and making up for the lost time spent without joy was the only thing he cared about.

Time did not effect this man from within. In every passing hour, he is thankful for everything that comes his way. In all moments, thoughts of eternity occupy his mind. He marvels incessently over the magnitude of God's Love for him and for the whole world - the humility of such a God that descended and became a mere man, who consented to take a form of constraint and powerlessness. That Jesus Christ dwelt in the world and willingly went up unto the cross to be crucified for our sakes.

That God embraced the shame of spitting, the pain of being betrayed by His own disciples, the torture and humility of having a crown of thorns put on His head, being whipped, struck on the head. His skin was striped, and He bled profusely; His wrists and feet were nailed to the wood of the cross so that He hung there for all to see! What Love! How amazing and fearful the thought that this was indeed and most truly God, Jesus Christ! How can we ever hope to repay such a beautiful and such an authentic demonstration of Divine Love! And to know that He suffered all this so that He would carry our sins, so that we could live with Him forever unto the ages of the ages! How can we ever dare to lose hope knowing that we are all in the presence of God!

When Christ looked at Peter after he denied Him three times, there was no hostility in this look, but rather a profound sadness seeing Peter lose something so precious - his unity with Christ, his life in love and true happiness. Christ did not care that He himself was betrayed wrongfully, but all the time concerned only for his lost sheep, at all times caring that his children are there under His wing, safe and enveloped in all love and all joy!

I can see the man looking in this way at the child, truly seeing the very heart of the problem at stake: even if though the child may show that there are too many problems to tackle, too many negative thoughts, too deep a despair, too deep a depression, too much suffering to even hope, this man can see only one problem. The child, in the man's eyes, is so desparate to know that God is there weeping with him in his sorrows, that God understands his suffering, can empathise with him.

Oh, but God knows, you little one! Every death, every loss, every horrible thought, every bodily pain, God understands! God understands your suffering more than you do, feels it more acutely than you do! He went up even to the cross, for you! God Loves you! And always God will Love you! Forever!

But what else is there to say, except that we should always dwell on this! What wasted time if not spent thinking and praying about this!