LOVE

Dear reader,

I've been thinking about LOVE for the past fews weeks and what it means. What it entails. How it affects us and what true love looks like. What is true love?

Is it the warm feeling you get when someone puts you first or has you in mind? Is it the burst of oxytocin that rushes your brain when someone gets you your favourite thing, or remembers small details about you or accepts you for who you are, flaws and all?

Or is love the choice to forgive when someone has hurt you badly, giving the benefit of doubt when someone acts besides themselves, responding kindly when someone treats you aggressively, caring for someone's things even when they're not around, defending someone against false allegations or gossip, believing someone even when the evidence says otherwise.

I think according to the worlds standards, true and real love; the type God calls us to, makes us fools. If someone who didn't understand true love reads the Bible, I think they'd call Jesus a fool. He had all this power, He had fore-knowledge and yet, He let human beings betray Him, mock Him and kill Him on a cross. Despite the hatred he was met with, He died for those same human beings that despised Him.

Wouldn't you even call that insanity? You think of that and say "it can never be me." Well, thank God it was Jesus who bore that burden and not one of us, cause it really could never be "one of us". We're too selfish in nature.

I've been called to a higher form of love. Tasked to love in a way that almost seems impossible and that all of the time, denies my "wants" and forces me into a state of selflessness. My Creator has given me the task to not just love when it feels good, or love when it's easy. He has called me to love as a decision. A daily choice. To love in a way that reflects His love for me.

"Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant. It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured. It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening]. Love never fails [it never fades nor ends]."

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

God doesn't love us based on how deserving we are. He loves us from a place of grace and He calls us to love from that same place. Not with the expectation that we'd perfectly execute that sort of love consistently, but knowing that we who have His DNA will strive to embody His nature as well with of course the help of His Holy Spirit in us.

This means that even when we are offended, hurt, or disappointed, we are still called to love—not in our own strength, but drawing from the grace that God has already loved us. This sort of love is what shows a persons real strength. That you are able to die to your natural instinct of self preservation and instead put another person first even to your own detriment sometimes. This love puts up with anything, not because it ignores wrongs, but because it chooses to see beyond them. It is a love that endures, just as God’s love for us never fails.

So as I pose the next questions to you, my dear reader, I encourage you to think on these things long after you are done reading this post. Search your heart with these words and make adjustments on whatever you feel is being corrected.

Does love mean we stand at the door—eager and ready to restore and embrace those who have hurt us, those who walked away and left us—without forcing them to love us back? Maybe.

Does it mean we lay down our lives, giving the shirt off our backs for the very same people who wounded us, misunderstood us, and took us for granted? Maybe.

Does it mean we remain content with what we have, refusing to let comparison and envy poison our hearts, even when it feels like others are being loved better, treated kinder, or living the life we thought we deserved? Maybe.

Love, as described in 1 Corinthians 13, is radical. It is not transactional. It is not a bargaining tool. It is not "I’ll love you if you love me back." It is not "I’ll forgive you if you apologise." It is not "I’ll be kind if you deserve it."

Love is patient—it waits, even when it hurts.

Love is kind—it offers warmth, even when met with coldness.

Love endures—it stays, even when every voice says, "You should leave."

Love bears all things—it carries burdens, even when they are not ours to carry.

Love keeps no record of wrongs—it wipes the slate clean, even when the pain is still fresh.

But this kind of love—the God kind of love—is not naive. It is not weak. It is not passive. It is brave. It is costly. It is a love that holds its arms open, not because it expects anything in return, but because that is what love does. That is what God did for us.

He stood at the door of our hearts while we rejected Him. He delights in us, without measuring us against others.

So, when we ask, Does love mean I stay open to those who hurt me? Does love mean I keep forgiving? Does love mean I give without expecting? The answer is… maybe. Because love isn’t about finding the easiest answer—it’s about finding God’s heart. And sometimes, God’s heart looks like standing at the door, waiting with grace. Sometimes, it looks like laying yourself down for someone who will never say thank you. Sometimes, it looks like choosing joy in what you have, rather than longing for what you don’t.

Love is not safe. But it is holy. Love is not easy. But it is worth it.

Because love—real love—looks like God.

And that love never fails.

With love and petals,

Jeiel Damina.