love

it's 6 am, the boys have gone to school and mimi and patricio are in the kitchen giggling. i wonder how they see each other now, 30 years and 8 kids later. do they still see that beautiful person they first fell in love with, that beautiful heart that touched theirs like no other. loving each other like God loves us. do their hearts even care how they've changed on the outside? he's 59, has gained a few pounds, has white hair, although he dyes it to keep it black, she's 46 and has gained a few pounds too.

it's our own insecurites that make us think we are less than we are. our vanity that makes us want others to see us as we want to see ourselves.

but God doesn't care about the outside. He's only concerned with the heart, whether it's beautiful or not.

real love isn't superficial or shallow - it's deep. it sees past physical disabilities, numbers don't mean anything, whether they are ages or pounds, it's colour blind, it's why a husband continues to take care of his wife with alzheimer's even after she no longer knows who he is. deep down inside one heart touches another and they become one, they are connected. they have something very precious and beautiful, a blessed gift from God.

why do other people, christians to boot, feel compelled to criticize and say things like why would that handsome man want to tie himself down to a woman who lives in a wheelchair, why doesn't that old man put his wife in a nursing home, why would that white woman marry that coloured man, what does that skinny man see in that overweight woman.

in case you still haven't gotten it, it's love, it's the tie that binds.

it's not the beautiful people, high school quarterback and popular cheerleader kind of love, although anything's possible. it's the beautiful hearts, deep, lasting. physical feathers may attract us but won't keep us.

if you are blessed to have that kind of love - hang on to it and ignore the critics, if you are one of those critics - shut up. it's none of your business. if you can't be happy for others then you must not have that kind of love yourself and need to look deep within your own heart. before God filled my heart i would look and some couples and wonder what they saw in each other. now i know.

if God isn't filling your heart don't expect anyone else to.