In the musical ‘Oliver’… Taken from the workhouse… sold to the undertaker Mr Sowerby… sent to sleep with the coffins Oliver sings:
Where is love?
Does it fall from the skies above?
Is it underneath the willow tree?
That I’ve been dreaming of?…
Much of the rest of the story asks that question – with Nancy, the Artful Dodger, the Brownlows showing different sorts of love…
At last night’s Men’s Shed Christmas dinner I sat next to George… Much of his working life he’d spent in and around London. He’s moved up to Lowestoft in recent years, and retired from work in September. He’s had two marriages that have ended in divorce and he’s been with his current girlfriend for nineteen years…
The discussion involved others, comparing our life journeys in and through marriage… Tony’s happily married for the second time. Jim’s been married for forty-three years. After two marriages and long-term relationship that’s recently ended badly, Pete intends to remain single. And I’ve been married for fifty-three years…
Where is love? Whatever our romantic or idealised views of life and love when we were young the way it’s worked out has been different for each of us.
This morning’s Bible reading included 1 John 4 with statements about love that are familiar to those of us who’ve been around church for a while. ‘This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us…’ ‘God is love…’ ‘Perfect love drives our fear…’ ‘We love because he first loved us…’
On Sunday, in many churches the fourth advent candle that symbolises love will be lit. Where is love? Christians will think of Jesus the baby coming as love…
At the end of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ the Lion’s discovered courage, Tinman’s discovered his heart, Scarecrow’s discovered his brain, and Tinman asks Dorothy: ‘What have you learned Dorothy?’
She replies: ‘…If I ever go looking for my hearts desire again I won’t go looking any further than my own backyard.’
Where is love? Perhaps it’s closer than we realise.
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