A bunch of years ago my husband gave me a small rug for my birthday after we had discovered the artist’s little gallery in Woodstock, Vermont. The gallery was folksy, fun, a little peculiar, homey, and left me with a wide smile. Months following, I delightedly unwrapped a tube with the hand-hooked wool rolled inside, created by the artist. I laughed at the two black labs, eye to eye, pulling on rope. It said, “Love is Give and Take”.
Bare feet, boots, socks and paws have trudged over that little rug now over twelve-ish years in two different homes. It never sunk in as deeply then, as it has over time: Love is Give and Take. When I first received it, I silently thought: no, love is ‘give’ like Jesus. But the visual of two standing with the willingness to look into one another’s eyes and hearts, each holding his/her section of the rope…over time, the ‘giving and taking’ worked in and through me.
Jesus’s love is “give”, but Jesus’s relational love is “give and take”. He wants us to love each other with this relational love…love more than the other person, but receive what he/she offers too. This love rarely comes in proportionate amounts, or even at expected times. His relational love is a rhythm of grace, and humility…handing out, handing over, bestowing, consigning, blessing, and then…receiving, catching, opening up and accepting what another holds out. Like my rug, the kind of love Jesus wants for His friends is sometimes stepped on, stepped over, dirt-tracked, mud pressed into its fibers, worn thin on its edges, and sometimes has a chewed corner that some sharp teeth– words or attitudes have shredded. Then it’s cleaned up through mercy, straightened out again with grace, corner scars are tucked under and duck taped. They are reminders of the ragged edge that’s been gnawed on, but forgiveness still makes the masterpiece of relationship worth keeping.
Love is give and take; love is all grace.
What greater love do you need to share with others? What greater love will you allow yourself to receive from others? Don’t speculate, but pick up your piece of the rope, and have the willingness to look into the heart and eyes of another, love them like crazy, and receive what they might have to give too.
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Love anyway. Love every way.