the quotable princess bride #2

Young Mother by Renoir

"Love is many things, none of them logical."

Not to say that love entirely excludes rationality or knowledge. I love God because I know that He is glorious and gracious. I love my parents because it makes sense to cherish and honor people who have put their lives on the figurative altar for me and five other mewling offspring. But it's not like I actually consult a logic textbook before I allow myself to feel love. It simply . . . happens. Naturally. Humans are made to love, and more often than not, it wells up without any particular "reason."

That was most evident when I fell in love with my husband and when I realized that I absolutely adored my child. In the first case, after a long summer of just-friendship, I blinked one evening and suddenly wanted nothing except to marry Jared. In the second case, after three weeks of dragging my weary post-partum self around and wishing that Ellie wouldn't cry so much, I woke up one morning and could not wait to get that baby out of her crib.

What happened? Love did. It's still happening. In hard times, intentional choice and careful reasoning are great aids to love, bolstering it when the fire flickers-- but in the end I think that it comes from God, and that at its best it goes beyond our logic to a place unreachable without Him.