How Do You Say It?

How do you say, “I love you”?

Alison Krauss sings, “You say it best when you say nothing at all.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning famously counts the ways she loved her husband Robert.

Shakespeare believes “love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.”

When Piglet asks Winnie the Pooh how to spell love, Pooh answers, “You don’t spell it, you feel it.”

In the Little Golden Book by Diane Muldrow, lions say it “with a purr and a cuddle,” and wolves say it “with a howl and a huddle.”

All of God’s creatures have the ability to express love in many ways.

According to Gary Chapman’s book The 5 Love Languages, we can express our love through words of affirmation, acts of service, gift giving, quality time, and physical touch.

Little Owl, a character in Laura Sassi’s book Love Is Kind, speaks all five of these languages when he sets out to buy his grandmother something special for her birthday. He gives words of affirmation to Beaver, provides a service for Mrs. Mouse, graciously accepts a gift from Rabbit, and spends quality time with Grammy. In the end Grammy holds Little Owl in her lap and thanks him for spreading love to everyone he has met.

He has put the needs of others before his own.

“And that is the best gift of all,” said Grammy.

The book of Matthew tells us that love should be the biggest priority in our lives.

In Chapter 22, verses 37-38, Christ says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Our society needs to hear and heed these words today.

The song “Written in Red,” penned by Gordon Jensen in 1984, speaks to the ultimate love, the agape love, revealed by Christ when he gave His life for all of us.

Written in Red

In letters of crimson, God wrote His love on the hillside so long, long ago; for you and for me Jesus died, and love’s greatest story was told. I love you, I love you. That’s what Calvary said. I love you, I love you, I love you, written in red. Down through the ages, God wrote His love with the same hands that suffered and bled, giving all that He had to give, a message so easily read. I love you, I love you. That’s what Calvary said. I love you, I love you, I love you.

(Click on the link below, and allow this song, performed by the Gaither Vocal Band, to speak to your heart.)

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/0WjcOSV-8v0

There has been no greater love than this. (John 15:13-17)

Tell someone you love them today. Words are not required.

Say it with patience. Say it with kindness. Say it with forgiveness. Say it without envy.

Commend someone for a job well done. Hug your spouse or your child. Graciously give of your time and energy.

Let’s not just say it. Let’s live it.

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love, no, not just for some, but for everyone.”

(Hal David/Burt Bacharach ©1965)

1 Corinthians 13:4-5; 1 Corinthians 16:14; Proverbs 3:3-4