Incomplete love (2)

Hello comrades, it is indeed a great Tuesday and a great week for everyone I trust. I’m specially happy that the leagues are resuming after a short break. Many of us obviously can’t wait to see our clubs performing better after some series of transfers, buying and selling of players. So shout out’ to every sport lovers out there and wishing you all from here a happy new league season.

This is plain me....lolz

I will be finalizing my article on incomplete love and I hope that this could be inspiring as ever and understood that love is deeper than what it seems to be on the outside through what we hear, what we see and what we profess.
A brief recap on the first part of my article gives three components of love which are attraction, affection and care. These could also be called SIGNS. In our world presently, when you are attracted to a lady, you believe you’ve found love, some say it’s a sign that I have found love. A woman can’t stop admiring a young musician on the stage and when he finally gets her attention and reciprocate the long stare, both of them feel a chemistry and they believe they are in love but after some getting together, they are separated and they discover that they were never in love.

The love we think we are having for each other these days diminishes like a candle that burns down into wax. I think we need to retrace our steps back to the root of love, it’s originality, it’s purpose and benefits. By starting with this story from the Holy book, I do not mean to sound religious but that you understand my train of thought and where it is leading….

There was a rich man who had two sons, many servants and workers in his estate. This rich man had several animals for work, for food and economic importance. He also had great properties and enjoyed his wealth until one of his sons (the younger one precisely) came to him and demanded his share of his entitlement (inheritance) even when his father was still alive.

This youngest boy had actually been living a lavish lifestyle, he moved with bad company and received foolish counsels. He couldn’t wait for the proper time to receive what was entitled to him and went along to his surprised father who could not understand him at first but later succumbed since his son was out of reasoning and for the sake of peace.

The boy was happy that he was given what he asked for, said his goodbye and wandered away into a faraway land. It was the freedom he had always been dreaming of and he lived his life like there was never going to be tomorrow. While his father cried at night and tried to look strong in the morning, his boy was wasting in an ecstasy of ugly freedom. While the old man climbed to the highest roof to look down the road everyday to see his son coming back, the boy only went farther and farther away from home.

Then it came.

It was so fast, like how the day turns into night without you being really conscious of it. He realized that he had squandered all his fortune to the last penny. Then he suddenly had a new companion which was Hunger. It visited him as often as he breathed in. He had to take a job of feeding pigs and eventually couldn’t help it but to eat the animals feed.

It was a moment of retribution which he knew and the knife of guilt pierced him so bad that he broke down and regained his senses. He decided to retrace his step by going back to his father not as a son (for he found himself worthless) but as a servant( so he work and earn his keep, for it was a matter of discipline on his personal self ).

The old man never gave up on climbing that roof to see his son coming and lo! and behold, on a very good day he went to the roof, looked down and found his son coming. It was the best life for the old man. He was so overjoyed that he ran down carelessly, unto the road and embraced his son wholeheartedly, kissed him joyfully and checked for signs of ill health around him. The boy couldn’t take this that he broke down on his knees and wept bitterly for long.

The old man went on a love spree that he had the boy attended to immediately. By his order servants changed his clothes, put rings on his fingers as a reinstatement (instead of being a servant as the boy requested, he will remain being a son), and had a reserved and the fattest calf killed for him which made his elder brother jealous and furious. All that the old man ever needed was for his lost son whom he loved dearly to be found and he would gladly do the same if it were the elder brother that got lost.

Father Abraham loved God dearly that he could do anything for him to be pleased. As you know the story…..Abraham cried so much for a child even to an oldest age and his wife to a certain age she couldn’t bear children anymore. God remembers them and answers their prayer by giving them Isaac. For the last time God needed to test Abraham’s love for him if it was still called Love. While Abraham knew he and his wife were off age of childbearing, he needed to protect and cherish the miraculous son he just had but then there was an order from God for his only son to be killed as a sacrificial lamb to please him. Without much thought and questions, Abraham took his only son and laid him and was about to slay him for God but was ordered to stop by an angel whom God sent and also provided a ram stuck amongst thorns to be used instead. God found what he was looking for. Do you know it?

It’s the missing part that people often ignore or reject. It’s called SACRIFICIAL LOVE. A love of sacrifice. In fact love is sacrificial, and not just attraction, affection or caring. It’s deeper than that. So there are many more examples I can give here, so many….but we can learn from these two above.
In our present day how many fathers can accept a prodigal son, a son who has squandered half his father’s wealth and returned back empty handed? How many mothers can forgive their teenage girls for messing their lives up? How many brothers can forgive their wayward brothers? How many husbands can forgive their wives for their misconduct? It goes on and on.

Some say i can’t die for my wife, after all we didn’t come into the world together. But then you have forgotten the vows on the altar. What did you think love was? Just sex and bear children, raised them up and move on? Love has nothing to do with sex, a lot of people having sex with each other never found love。Most have sex for the fun of it, some for stress relief and etc. Sex is just a compliment. A pleasure to responsibility, only for matured couples of opposite sex.

Love is sacrificial. If you do not know how to forgive and embrace one that has done you terrible hurt, you can’t say you love such person because you need to kill the revenge spirit, crush your pride, calm your wild thoughts and become a fool again. Only then would peace settle into you and love will find its way again. The pain which you took for yourself is the sacrifice that has been made. A sacrificial love is the ultimate definition of love in history. Our Great God had to sacrifice an innocent blood to redeem everyone just for the love he has for us. The sacrificial lamb accepted to die on the cross just for the love he has for us. Abraham accepted to kill his only son knowing fully well he might not get another just to demonstrate his love for God. The loving father never stopped loving his wayward son.

When we profess our love to anyone or anything, we go through some test to confirm them……these things we do not know but while some are aware, they lack patience and fail. In marriages, such test could be lack of children, money, good health and so on. Ask your spouse if they can take a bullet for you and get their answers, you shall know who loves you or not.
I have not left you alone by ending it here but I would like to know your thoughts on this matter.