When Love is Pushed to Truth

“Ever has it been that love knows not its own depths until the hour of separation.”

— Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931)

Any man, or woman for that matter, who has endured the castigating nemesis of separation beyond their will must certainly identify with the abovementioned quote. I do. I do indeed recall a time when, for all the love I took for granted, love suddenly became more paramount than anything else in the entire world. But, alas, for me it was too late. The marriage I had neglected was under the curse of a death knell. She had done her grieving and mine was just starting.

A harrowing truth beckoned over me, back then, as God communicated through my then-wife what I didn’t understand about love—that she needed all of me and not just the convenient parts. Still, it was a blessing—though a harsh one—to know then what I should have always known.

When we take love for granted, love eventually gives up, saying, “Okay, you have it your way.”

Love deserves better. It deserves reciprocation. It deserves justice.

When Push Comes to Shove

Endurance is the masterpiece of the human soul that has hope for change, but that very endurance—when it is pushed to bounds of injustice—has its own ordained use-by date.

When push comes to shove unrequited love seeks its retribution. It knows what it deserves and goes after it. I know what I desire for my daughters, and they deserve to be loved, at least as much as they will love the men they finally choose. For what we are willing to put into love we should, ideally, receive back in kind.

When love is pushed to truth—and it must face the inevitability that things won’t change—love takes a stand as it takes courage and implements a drastic and sweeping change. It takes its destiny into its own hands. It hammers a stake into the ground. It decides enough is enough and commits to a plan of action. Then there is peace.

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Sometimes we don’t know how much things mean to us until they are gone. Love can transform something we took for granted and make it never more prized. This, indeed, is a lesson of God, to prize love above all things. Relationships are the pinnacle; the marriage relationship uppermost.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.