A Many Splendored Thing

This morning before I got out of bed, for some reason I started thinking about an acquaintance of mine who believes that the human heart has a finite ability to love. As such, she is very careful as to whom she loves, though she gives it wholeheartedly to those lucky ones.

This never made any sense to me. I believe that we are modeled after Christ, who loved us so much that he died to save us. God created us with literally endless amount of love to give and receive.

Having grown up watching Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, and other 50s shows that created a perfect (if improbable) picture of the American family, I always assumed that’s what my adult future held. God had other plans, however. I had one child followed a few years later by a divorce. My life was a good one, but my family dinners consisted of my son and me. Instead of filling up a pew at church, my son and I just took up a corner. But the good news was there were aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins to fill in all the gaps. I must also report that my son’s father, though no longer married to me, remained involved in his life as well.

Ten years later, I remarried a man with three children. Now I have four children, three in-laws, six grandchildren (with one more on the way), as well as all those aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents (including a stepmother). I jokingly say that when I look at my Thanksgiving table, I am looking at a mini United Nations.

And I love them all. And all of them love me. And all of them have many others who love them and whom they love back.

Someone asked if I love my own son’s daughter more than my step-grandchildren and I can say no! without hesitation. The difference to me is, as I look at her, I think, “Some of my very own DNA is in her.” I ask myself things like, “Does she look at all like me?”

But I love all of my children and grandchildren. Thank goodness, God made us with the ability to love infinitely.

As St. Paul told the Corinthians, “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”