What Love Looks Like

"No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."  -1 John 4:12

Gabriel

I had a dog when I was a child, actually two, but I was too young to remember the first.  I named him Snowball because he was all white.  But when my little brother came along he named him Buster and so that is what we called him.  After the Buster died when I was 12 my little brother had several more dogs before I left home.  I didn't consider them my dogs so I did not become attached to them like I had to Snowball/Buster.  I did not get another dog until 46 years later after my last child had gone off to college.  It was obvious to me that he was a replacement for my children.  I needed someone to nurture.  Little did I know that I would be nurtured in return.

Gabriel bonded to me to the point that he would not let anyone he saw as a threat near me.  He is always at the door waiting for me when I come home, jumping wildly to greet me and lick my face.  He is totally my dog!  I brush him every day which he does not care for when I get near his feet.  He'll growl at me, but never bite, and loves me just as much as before.  He brings me one of his toys from time to time when he wakes up from a nap.  I think, for him, I've been the one who's been away and he's welcoming me home.  I feel that God shows us His love in the same manner in that He loves us no matter what.  He's eager to receive us when we finally come home to Him, and waits patiently for us to return time and again when we stray.

I am grateful for the love my dog gives me.  It is Gabriel's nature to love me in the way he does: greeting me eagerly,  always forgiving me, looking after me.  And it is my nature, having been made in the image of God, to love in the way that God loves--unconditionally--if I would but yield to God so that His love will be made complete in me.