Affection, devotion, passion, tenderness, ardor, commitment. The list goes on. My trusty Roget’s International Thesaurus cites hundreds of terms for it. Yet there really isn’t the perfect synonym for love. Most are approximations, descriptions of some aspect of that glorious thing that truly makes our world go round and round. But the word “love” stands on its own. To say it is to say something that no other word in our language can say.
Valentine’s Day is an acknowledgement of our need to give and receive love. Yet what exactly is it we are so eager to share? I love you. How many times and in how many ways are those three simple words said every day in every place in the world where human beings exist? And how many times are they not said enough?
Love is something you can never have too much of. We seem to have an infinite capacity for it without quite knowing what it is. Its mystery is in its power. Love can change anyone and anything, everyone and everything. Nothing else can do that. Nothing else brings such universal meaning to our lives.
We love many things. We love ideas and beauty, we love countries and hometowns, we love our pets, we love colors and flavors, songs and poems and books. We love ourselves and one another. We love God.
That, I think, is the secret to what love is. It is that single perfect spark that runs from heaven to earth and flows through our lives and our stories like a divine current, endlessly seeking channels for expression, an unencumbered force for good. It is grace personified. And whenever we feel it, we feel God speaking to us, that simple cosmic phrase of comfort.
There is only one true word for it—love.
