The Source of Love

Celtic Love Knot

This poem grew out of noticing how delicate love can be and yet how persistently it reaches outward anyway. I want to hold human love honestly, in all its fragileness and effort, alongside the steady faithfulness of Divine Love, without collapsing the difference between the two. The mystery is not that they are the same, but that they are related. That when we forgive again, remain present, or give ourselves quietly for another, we are not inventing love on our own. We are responding to a Love that has always been calling us, sustaining us, and forever drawing us back into Itself.

Love begins

when something calls us outward

and we resist the urge to close,

making space for another.

Love begins when we stand before ourselves,

unashamed to name our own lives

as worthy of care and tending.

Love is brave in its trying,

but fragile in its keeping.

It learns patience slowly.

It stumbles, tires, needs forgiveness.

Divine Love dwells in deeper mystery.

It is not threatened by outer influences.

Is not disturbed by wandering paths.

It waits.

It remains.

Where human love fears losing,

Divine Love holds fast.

Where human love grows weary,

Divine Love bears the weight.

Though shaped by different stories,

these two loves are kin.

Human love begins in God

and bears a family likeness.

When human love forgives again,

chooses patience over pride,

or makes room for another’s weakness,

it reflects its Source.

When human love stays present,

listens without rushing to fix,

or carries another’s sorrow faithfully,

it reflects its Source.

When human love gives freely,

trusts without full assurance,

or pours itself out in quiet service,

it reflects its Source.

When we love well,

something ancient stirs within us.

A memory written before words.

The truth of who we were made to be.