The Adventure of Love

“We love because God first loved us.”             I John 4:19

What is love?  Oh, there are so many definitions, so many songs about love and so many people who feel unloved and wonder if love even exists.

What is love?  The first time I said “I love you” to my husband, Dave, he asked me this question.  I was taken back that he didn’t receive my love, but he did and wanted to know the depth of my heart.  The words were not just spoken in response but from the depth of my heart.

Love….it grows, matures and makes life beautiful.  Love also fades and withers due to lack of cultivating and growing.  I was blessed with a marriage that was centered not just on our love for one another but on the love of God for both of us.  We can only love because God first loved us.  God showed us what love is by sending his one and only Son into the world so we could have life through him.

“This is what real love is:  It is not our love for God; it is God’s love for us in sending his Son to be the way to take away our sins.”   I John 4:10

I believe love never ends; it just takes a different form.  The love I have for Dave, for my parents, my grandparents, and special people in my life stays within me.  It is my foundation of love and life.  Because I have been loved and have loved, I have the ability to love again.  I cannot create any more memories with those I have loved and are now in heaven, but their love continues to guide and direct my path in life.

I have walked this journey of grief over the loss of my husband, Dave, for four and a half years.  On this journey I have encountered many who are grieving and God has given me the ability to comfort them with the same
comfort He has given me.  I have tried many ways to live in this different life.  I have moved locations several times, given away most of my possessions, tried different opportunities, traveled, visited friends, officiated at
weddings, baptisms and funerals, and in each adventure, I have drawn closer to God.

I have served and given of myself and received blessings in abundance.  I am thankful for all the opportunities God has placed in my path that I would not have had if I had not experienced this deep grief.  I am NOT thankful Dave died, but I am thankful Dave is in heaven.  I am thankful for all the adventures God has given to me since Dave went to heaven.

I have missed though the love adventure and being a priority in someone’s life.  I have prayed daily for God’s will and if God had someone else for me to walk the path of life with, He would have to place them on my path.  I was not seeking or searching, but trusting in God to know what was best for my life.

  I have grieved more after death because of the short period of illness of Dave.  We have both loved and grieved.  Because we have a foundation of faith and love, we can build upon it and begin a new adventure in love.

God is at the center of my life and my relationship.  The love I have experienced in my life is still within me. 
It has molded me and because I have loved, I can love again and be filled with the love God created for a man and a woman to share.