Relationships vs Love

Dear Holy Spirit, may the words of my mouth be acceptable to You.

Relationship is a relatively modern word. Many in our culture call upon it to express a new sense of caring for others. But in this world we are just not given the opportunity to have meaningful relationships with many people beyond our closest circle of family and friends.

For some of us meaningful relationships are few, for others they have many more but, given the limits of our human existence it is difficult to really care for the day-to-day needs of others. Perhaps, what we understand to be "meaningful relationships" with others will only be possible when God gives us our heavenly eternity.

But, what we have now is love and God wants us to love Him and to love all others no matter how brief the encounter. On earth, we may not have time to develop strong relationships, but our triune God wants us to love.

He wants me to love Pope Benedict even though I'm a Lutheran, He wants me to love women even though I'm a man, He wants me to love my boss even though he treats me unfairly, He wants me to love my enemies even though they seek to kill me, He wants me to love my relatives even though we have differences, and He wants me to love you even though I don't know you and think you're strange.

Through Christ, I want to love you. Do you want to love me?