What is love?

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What is love?

It seems that the answer isn’t obvious to anyone at first. Those who have experienced it often fail to describe it. 

The Islamic poet Rumi wrote: “Love is God saying ‘I have created all this for you.’ And you say ‘I have left everything for you.’”

Those who haven’t often believe it doesn’t exist. 

In the pilot episode of Mad Men, the debonair dreamboat Donald Draper say love is just a mirage of capitalism. The reason you haven't felt it, he says, is because it doesn't exist. What you call love was invented by guys like me, to sell nylons. 

If you tend to think like Don, you may be asking, “Do we really need love?” 

Back in the thirteenth century, the German king, Frederick II, conducted a experiment intended to discover what language children would naturally grow up to speak if never spoken to.

King Frederick took babies from their mothers at birth and placed them in the care of nurses who were forbidden to speak in their hearing. But a second rule was imposed, as well: the nurses were not allowed to touch the infants. To his great dismay, Frederick’s experiment was cut short, but not before something tragically significant regarding human nature was revealed. The babies grew up to speak no language at all because they died.

It would seem that from the moment we are born to the day we die, love, affection, care, and attention is a deep desire and need over every person. 

Many of you may feel like you know something of love. From your relationship with your parents to perhaps memories of past lovers, or the bonds that hold you marriage together, we all seem to want it, pursue it, and need it. But what is it? And perhaps more importantly… how do you get it? For some, those relationships may be a painful reminder of loves lack… We may intuitively know love when we see it and it’s been far too long, if ever, since you’ve experienced it. 

How do you get love? Thats the subject of our discussion this morning. To start, I want to turn your attention to a familiar story from our ages story, Walt Disney. 

In 1991, the Walt Disney company released the now famous animate film Beauty and the Beast. I think the opening prologue is illustrative to our question. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2rDrKUb6bM

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young Prince lived in a shining castle.

Although he had everything his heart desired, the Prince was spoiled, selfish, and unkind. 
 But then, one winter's night, an old beggar-woman came to the castle, and offered him a single rose in return for shelter from the bitter cold.

Repulsed by her haggard appearance, the Prince sneered at the gift and turned the old woman away. But she warned him not to be deceived by appearances, forbeauty is found within. And when he dismissed her again, the old woman's ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful Enchantress.

The Prince tried to apologize, but it was too late, for she had seen that there was no love in his heart. And as punishment, she transformed him into a hideous Beast, and placed a powerful spell on the castle, and all who lived there.

Ashamed of his monstrous form, the Beast concealed himself inside his castle, with a magic mirror as his only window to the outside world. The rose she had offered was truly an enchanted rose, which would bloom until his 21st year. If he could learn to love another, and earn her love in return, by the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time.

As the years passed, he fell into despair, and lost all hope. For who could ever learn to love a Beast?

*** 

That’s the ultimate question isn’t it. Who could ever learn to love a Beast? 

Love is a commitment to see past flaws and exterior facades. Belle knew this. The town folk sang

“Now it's no wonder that her name means "Beauty"
Her looks have got no parallel
Shopkeeper:
But behind that fair facade
I'm afraid she's rather odd
Man:
Very diff'rent from the rest of us
Townsfolk:
She's nothing like the rest of us
Yes, diff'rent from the rest of us is Belle!”

Belle was familiar with being misunderstood and rejected.

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