What is love?

Valentine’s Day is one of the most famous holidays in the world. Normally, romantic couples celebrate the day by expressing their love to each other.

Last year, as Valentine’s Day was approaching, I was conscious that for my adult students at the Ukraine Cultural Centre, where I teach English, the day might be challenging. Many of them were living with a sense of loss and fear, having left their families and homes in Ukraine; some had a spouse or other loved one fighting on the front line, and some were dealing with bereavement.

How was I to approach this in my lesson that week? I always begin my preparation for teaching refugees and asylum seekers by turning to God in prayer and listening for His guidance. As I did so, a question came to thought: “What is love?”

As I pondered this question I remembered learning in the Christian Science Sunday School that God is Love, as we read in the Bible, and that God loves each one of us as His dear children. I have learned that I can turn to this Love that is God in times of need. As I have done this, I have experienced comfort, peace, and physical healings.

I remember the time as a child when I awoke one night with a raging toothache. My mother came to my bedside to comfort me, and I remember her saying that God was with me and that His love was enough for us. I recall how I felt wrapped up in God’s tender, loving presence. I fell asleep and awoke the next morning completely healed.

God is omnipresent, omnipotent divine Love, and God made man in His image and likeness, as we read in the Bible (see Genesis 1:26, 27). As God’s image, man, including everyone, is entirely spiritual, whole, and healthy, and God is always with us – we are deeply loved, cared for, and protected. It is this Love that I felt with me that night.

Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science and founded The Church of Christ, Scientist, wrote in her textbook on Christian Science, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” “‘God is Love.’ More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go” (p. 6).

My lesson with the Ukrainians began with the question, “What is love?” I shared a video showing young children answering this question. One boy responded with, “Love is the feeling that brings us all together,” whilst another made the strong statement, “Love defeats hate.” This led naturally to being able to share how I have come to know God as Love in my life and that this Love is always with us. We can never be separated from it.

We learned to sing a hymn that includes these words: “Where you’re going, Love will lead you. / Where you’re walking, Love will guide.” “Love is always at your side.” “God’s great good shall now define you, / As on Love your hopes rely.” “Love’s protection never fails you – / God is Love and guards your way” (Elenora E. Pike, “Christian Science Hymnal: Hymns 430-603,” No. 598, adapt. © CSBD).

We discussed what being defined by “God’s great good” meant to each of us. I explained that because God is Love and entirely good and because He made us in His likeness, no matter where we are or what our situation seems to be, we can identify ourselves as “the loved of Love” (Margaret Glenn Matters, “Christian Science Hymnal,” No. 232, © CSBD).

We can refuse to allow our thoughts and actions to be influenced by hostility, resentment, hatred, lack, or loss. This is not what defines who we really are as the wholly spiritual image and likeness of God, but rather, each one of us is defined by divine Love, held safe and secure by God. Understanding divine Love as the source of our true identity can lift and heal our hearts by removing fear and anger, filling our thoughts with God’s love, and showing us how Love is protecting us.

After the class, one woman came to me and hugged me. She said, “I realize I have been letting hatred define me, but now I know that I can let God’s love define me.”

Indeed, like this woman from Ukraine, whatever we may seem to be facing, we, too, can see that we are not defined by fear, hatred, pain, or sorrow. We can feel the power of God’s tender love and know that this is what defines us.