She Sees Love Where Anyone Else Would See Weeds

I've been contemplating the nature of love lately, and as food for thought, I've taken the liberty of collecting some quotes on love from one of my favorite theologians, C.S. Lewis. Let me know which one (or ones) in particular strikes you, and why.

"Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained."

"This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted."

"Why love if losing hurts so much? We love to know that we are not alone."

"Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal."

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

The quote with the greatest impact on me is the last one. In order to be able to love, we must open our hearts to the possibility of being hurt, much as God did when he decided to create beings with free will. In so doing, he created simultaneously the potential for insurmountable love and monumental pain. In this world, we cannot experience love without the high probability of pain.

“The Promised Land always lies on the other side of a wilderness.”