God is Love

1 John 4:8   But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

 Piglet: “How do you spell love?”

 Pooh: “You don’t spell it. You feel it.”

 Pooh, the great philosopher, isn’t wrong, but he may be misleading—for love is a relationship. It’s much more than just feeling. As the apostle John said, “God is love,” and, as God is a relationship, so is love.

 There is a story told by Thomas Wheeler, then chairman of the board of Mass Mutual Life. He and his wife were driving in the country one day when he noticed they were low on gas. Serendipity found a seedy, dilapidated little gas station with one pump. There was only one attendant, so Wheeler pumped his own gas. He noticed his wife carrying on an animated, friendly conversation with the gas station man. When they saw Wheeler looking at them, the attendant walked away, seemingly embarrassed.

 As they moved on down the road, Wheeler asked his wife if she knew the gas station man. She said, “Know him? Indeed I do. We were very close in high school. We dated seriously and even talked of marriage.”

 Well, Thomas Wheeler could not help himself. He swelled up with pride, and he just had to brag a bit. “Boy, were you lucky I came along, because if you had married him you would be the wife of a man who pumps gas in an old dilapidated service station instead of the wife of the chairman of Mass Mutual.’

 To this his wife replied, “My dear, if I had married him, he would be the chairman of the board of Mass Mutual, and you would be pumping gas!”

 Wisely, his comeback is not recorded. A smile-worthy story perhaps, but it carries with it a serious point, namely that we are what we are because of our relationships. Change them and your life is changed. We need to build our relationships on love—not envy, not jealousy, not competition, but love. We need to love people, and we need to tell them we love them.

 I love the donkey, Eeyore. He has a way of navigating a world of distractions and disappointments. He says, “One can’t complain. I have my friends. Someone spoke to me only yesterday.” OK, he’s a little short on relationships, but he handles them with love.

 Even a friend like Eeyore can drop a few positive nuggets for you to chew on. He says,

“If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient.”

And, “A little Consideration, a little Thought for others, makes all the difference.”

 My God is love. What more could I say about Him?