Grand gestures are great when it comes to love. But grand gestures are not the neighborhood love lives in. Grand gestures are the vacations spots of love. Wonderful to visit. Necessary in life. Fun to remember and dream of.
Love lives in the ordinary. Love lives in the day-to-day. Love lives in the little. I bring you three exhibits from last week.
Exhibit A:
I was having lunch with a friend and said that my mom’s love language is time.
Tracking with me, he nodded and said, “Oh, quality time.”
“No, being on time.”
We laughed, but it was one of those rare moments a truth pops out and you wonder where it came from. It’s true, to communicate love to my mom, be on time. Or, better yet, have her to her destination on time. In the grand world of “love” it doesn’t look sexy or draw much attention to itself, does it? It’s almost so darn dull, I want to move on to something else.
But the Holy Spirit has been saying all week, “Park here. Do not miss this.”
Exhibit B:
A friend who serves on the field emailed she had said she’d recently written something raw, but it was true. I wrote back saying what she’d written was beautiful.
But.
And.
I wanted to help. How could I pray for her? In her response she shared how, right now, she’s hating the land that’s she’s been called to love. Hating the toll it’s taking on her. Hating that it is so much harder than she dreamed it could be. Jealous of others. Feeling selfish for needing a break. Would I pray that supporters would understand the need for a break this fall instead of waiting for next summer.
And I teared up reading this.
But not for the reason you might think.
I wrote back my tears were because I was honored she’d tell me the truth. That in cutting through all of the holy-spiritual-smoke-and-mirror crap and naming what was really going on, I felt very loved by her. I was moved because of love.
I also confessed my prayers might not be heard because my tears weren’t for her plight, but the gesture towards me.
(You know I’m kidding about not being heard, right?! Right?)
(I have prayed and will pray and know the prayers are heard. How they will be answered, that I don’t know :))
Love comes, not only in the perfect cleaned up times of romantic dinners, nice clothes, and batting eyes at each other. Love comes when we make gestures towards each other in the less than perfect moments and say, “This is the hot mess I find myself in. If nothing else, will you stand here and watch me. You don’t have to solve it, but can you at least bear witness to this?! Please?”
Exhibit C:
You know the role the Broncos have played in our family story. I’ve said before, the Broncos are the container, the holder of story that’s bigger than any one of us, but it’s not about sports. You also know that since Dad died and the baton has been passed to Del (my brother-in-law) and me, we are using pre-season to invite his daughters into the story one-by-one.
Saturday it was Emily’s turn. I love that girl for many, many reasons. Here in this space, I love her because she does not care a wit about football, but she cares about me. She cares about her grandpa. She cares about seeing where we sit and what a game is like. She went with me to, what may be, her only NFL game because of love.
Love looks like wearing the right colors, asking about the rules, and humoring your aunt who is yelling how rare it is to see a safety! When, in all fairness she could have yelled back, “Do you have any idea how rare it will be for me to see any scoring?” Instead she clapped when I clapped, she listened to me explain the game (just basics! Didn’t want to overwhelm), and she smiled at me when I cheered loudly (hey, we all have boundaries). She loved me.
*****
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 1 John 4:7-9
Love lives in the ordinary. Love lives in the day-to-day. Love lives in the little.
Amen and amen.
*****
Where have you loved or been loved in the ordinary, day-t0-day of your life? What’s your twist on a love language?
<3 <3 <3
Back at cha! :)
Loved exhibits A, B & C. B broke my heart; makes me want to open my home to this friend who feels so worn out and in need of refreshment. It makes me wonder if single women in the field always have a place to go back to for refreshment. I never ever imagined being on time might be someone’s love language. Perhaps a word in their love language, but the whole kit and caboodle? I’ll try to be more respectful; I’ve become very lax. C is so true. Even though I’ve married, had a son, now with an 18-mo. old grandson, and a granddaughter on the way, I still think there is nothing quite like being the best ever Aunt. (Probably because I had a best ever aunt who was responsible for so many of the sweet things in my young life.) About 12 years ago my husband, thinking I’d never say yes, asked if I’d like him to read DUNE the series to me. I surprised him by saying, “Yes.” Science Fiction is not my genre of choice but he’d read the series multiple times and just loved it. Him reading and explaining DUNE to me, did more to draw us together as couple again. It was fun time together that had nothing to do with household, finances, son, or work. It was an absolute delight for us both! Sorry for such a long comment.
Susan, never say sorry for a comment! I figure sometimes when people are writing a comment it’s them having a conversation with themselves, God, another commenter, or me :). Any of those are fine!! Love hearing about DUNE :)
Making meals, washing dishes, doing the laundry and basically staying out of Wendy’s way when I see that she’s overwhelmed and stressed as she spends hours making bulletin boards and lesson plans for the first day of school tomorrow. That’s me showing love to my wonderful wife.
You are a keeper Mike … for far more than just being a great supporter and lover of Wendy (but that’s near the top of the list!!
“You don’t have to solve it, but can you at least bear witness to this?”
Great words. In this really is love at its very best is just showing up.
Just show up.
Love it David!