It has been said that love makes the world go ‘round. People spend their whole lives searching for love. They dream about it, sing about it, write about it, and fight for it. We all want to find that one true love. It becomes a quest for some of us and many of us find it, but there are some people who never seem to find it, and it affects their entire lives. They see love as something to possess, and they often look in the wrong places to find it. They are so desperate to feel love that they often mistake it and end up being even more disillusioned than they were before. We all find ourselves searching for unconditional love, and many of us believe that it does not exist.

There are many types of love. There is the love we feel for our friends, there is the love will feel for our significant other, and there is the love we feel for our children. There are many degrees of love. There is the type of love that is fleeting and can end as quickly as it began. There is the kind of love that is stronger, but can still be broken. I believe that there is a continuum of love. Imagine for a moment that love was something that we could actually see. Love ranges from the very weak to the very strong. The first degree begins like a spider web. It is very fragile and anything can break it. The next degree of love is like a piece of thread, then a piece of yarn. It becomes thicker and becomes a thin rope, which becomes even sturdier until it is a piece of tightly woven fabric. The tightly woven fabric eventually becomes even stronger and turns into metal. The metal becomes thicker and thicker until it is a large steel beam. If you know anything about steel beams, they are unbreakable. This is God’s love. You see, nothing can break the love of God. He truly has unconditional love for all of us. His love can never be broken no matter what we do. He loves us when we are good, and He loves us when we are bad. He will never turn His back on us, and He will never fall out of love with us.

The only other love that can even compare with God’s love is that of a parent. For those of you who are parents, think about how much you love your children and even when they do wrong or disappoint you, you still love them. They can spend years making bad decisions and messing up their lives, but you still love them. They can even get mad at you and sometimes even be cruel to you, and you still love them.

Now, think about this for a second. God’s love is even greater than that. I find that completely amazing. He loves us no matter what. We can mess up our lives, make bad decisions, and even turn our backs on Him and He still loves us. He waits patiently for us to finally realize that we need Him in our lives, and He welcomes us back home with open arms. He doesn’t hold grudges and doesn’t try to make us feel guilty for our transgressions. He is just happy to see us again, and He helps us pick up the broken pieces of our lives and puts them back together for us. Now, if that is not the true definition of unconditional love, I don’t know what is.

The word love is mentioned in the Bible 310 times. The Bible even says that the greatest of the gifts that God gives us is love. Love can truly change our families, our country, our world, and us. God tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. I believe that He also wants us to love people the way He loves us. We may never be able to completely accomplish that, but if we can even get a little closer to it, it will change everything.

So, the next time you think that you have really messed your life up and you feel alone and unloved, think of that steel beam. Think of how much God loves you and remember that His love is unbreakable. Rest in that assurance and go back home. He will be waiting there with open arms and with more love than you can ever imagine. Knowing that God’s love is unconditional will bring us peace, and PEACE MATTERS.

~Dan~

Special thanks to Stacee Droit of Arnett's Country Store who so graciously allowed me to use some of her pictures for this blog entry. You can visit the Arnett's Country Store's website at www.arnettscountrystore.com.