Rural Dean's View - July 2012

Dear friends,

"God is love, and those who live in love, live in God, and God lives in them." 1 John 4:16

Words said at the start of the wedding service.

We have quite a number of weddings this year in our two churches. Its good that couples choose to marry in church, for weddings and ceremony are something the church does very well. Marriage is a celebration of love, the love of the couple at the centre of the wedding service.

But what is love? Often we speak of love as being just a feeling. But if we wait for us to feel love before we ourselves love, then maybe we shall never learn to love well.

Of course the feeling of being ‘in love’ is life-giving, invigorating and beautiful, but our loving cant be based solely on those feelings.

For to love is to think, to speak, to act according to the faith we have in the all loving God. He loves us infinitely and He calls us to make that love as visible as we can in the world to those around us.

If we desire those feelings of love in ourselves then we need to love others. We often know what the loving thing to do in a situation is, we sometimes need to ask God for the courage to do it. For when we do love, even if our love is not responded to in the way we envisaged, then we can find that in loving others we ourselves find the deep feelings of love that we look for.

"Love one another, as I have loved you" said Jesus.

He loved all who came to Him, all who were around Him. Jesus loves all of us, no matter who we are. He ultimately gave His life out of love for us.

If we want to feel love, then we need to love.

And as another saying goes ‘practice makes perfect!’

Revd Canon Ian Finn
Rural Dean

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