To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will be not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.

- C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

 It’s been an eventful couple of weeks for me! It started with a family reunion where forty-some relatives gathered for three beautiful days in Sheboygan, WI. On the heels of that was a high school graduation party we threw for our youngest daughter, Mary. 

Both events were a reconnection with family and friends I’ve known for decades. Both experiences were profound reminders of how durable and miraculous love can be. Being together again awakened old memories, elicited laughter, and made me feel fused to a reality so much bigger than just my own personal struggles, joys, and circumstances. It was comforting to remember how many divine and eternal threads bind us together.

In catching up, we revealed updates and accomplishments, sorrows and setbacks, insights and uncertainties. I marveled at how much and little had changed- new babies and grandbabies, new homes and careers, more grey in our hair but the same familiar smiles and personalities. 

Represented were a diverse range of temperaments and opinions, as well as interests and insecurities. Our conversations confirmed that everyone is indeed fighting their own battles and in need of some mercy, patience, and kindness. 

Committing to love means opening our hearts and minds, seeking to understand, being quick to forgive and slow to judge. It’s putting forth effort to actively listen, guard our tongues, and gird each other up.  Yes, love can break our hearts, but also expand and heal them. 

It is vulnerable to love. It is Christ-like to love. It is love that transforms and saves us.

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