What love is.....

I think I have always had a problem knowing what love really is.

Strings attached. Approval needed. A pat on the back rather then a hug.
I have been learning something. My view on love was tainted and wrong. Love has no strings attached. It holds you when you are broken. It doesn't hold blame and give guilt. Love, real love, is beautiful.

God has an amazing love for His children. EVERY one of them. The lost, the found, the weak, the strong, the broken and the pieced together. He wipes your tears and holds you when you cry. He accepts the tears and doesn't tell you to toughen up. He tells you, "Child, let it out. I am holding you." He doesn't condemn you for your mistakes, He helps you to work through them and realize that you can get through them and He still loves you. NO strings attached.

It is hard for me to wrap my head around it. Love really can't be THAT simple can it? Forgiveness given when asked, really is it that simple? But it is. It really is. His love that will fill any void. A void that cannot be filled with any type of drug, drink or numbing. When we try to fill that void with something besides God and His love it just feels even more empty.

He holds His hands out to us, waiting for us to run to Him. Wanting to hold us in our pain, cry with us, laugh with us with no expectations. Love is God. When you read the following verse I challenge you to replace the word love with "God". The word it with "He". THAT is what true love is.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always loves, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." 1Corinthians 13:4-8

So cling to real love. The REAL love of Christ. I am so grateful for it and find myself having a hard time believing it is that simple. But it is. Praise God.