Free to Love

I had a thought the other day--I think it was when we were listening to music in the car.

We are free to love anyone we choose! 

Isn't that awesome?  We aren't restricted.  I mean, isn't love a beautiful thing?  It makes you feel so great inside to love someone--to make them smile, to hug them, to give them a compliment, help them, give them a special gift for no reason except that--what else--you love them?

I think it is.

And we are free to love anyone we choose.  Wouldn't it be awesome if we looked at love as a privilege, a verb, an action, a deed, rather than something we get, something to write about, something to absentmindedly tell your family that you feel towards them?  Wouldn't it be awesome if we looked at love as a Person?  As Who it really is?  God?

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.  One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

-Matthew 22:34-40

We are free to love anyone!

Our family.
Our friends.
Our enemies not-so-much-friends.
Our fellow Americans.
People from other countries.
That lady in the nursing home.
The homeless man on the sidewalk.
The child in the nursery.

Isn't that such a privilege?  Isn't it a privilege we should accept daily, happily?