The Beatles sang “all you need is love!” It is assumed they intended to say that love was the answer to all of life’s needs. It is a great idea but apparently it was only an idea or at best an ideal. Not long after this song was a hit the group disbanded never, despite the pleading of fans, to reform. I remember as a teenager in the ‘70s going to a friend’s house who had a poster of what the Beatles would look like in the year 2000 when they would supposedly reform the group. Of course it never happened, first John Lennon and then George Harrison past away and in both cases their passing was greatly mourned.  You would have to surmise that as wonderful as their highest ideal, that love was the cure for all human ills, it was something the fulfilment of which eluded even their genius.
When we love someone deeply it seems that most are willing to believe that love is the final word in all of the struggles that the relationship might face. However given enough pressure, stress and misunderstanding it seems that even the greatest of relationships can come apart, at least there is much evidence to suggest that is the case.

I have been thinking a lot about the limits of love this week and what might expose them. I think of friendships that I have, my own marriage, and my relationship with my kids. I am utterly committed to the concept expressed by the Beatles in all of these relationships and yet I still am profoundly aware of the way I can fail these people sometimes. It is my hope that if my love is expressed abundantly enough it will transcend my shortcomings.

Here however is where God’s love stands above all others. His love never fails. In fact to find our lives lost in His love is to make all other love both possible and enduring. Wow, what a way to live – complete confidence that God’s love will always be there and it will sustain all other love. That is something really worth thinking about.

Roland