by Dave Schultz
The Old Man on Love
The third time we met, he said, “Let’s talk about love.
Here it is, almost an archetype--I regret
not knowing the lingo--this perfect thing within.
What is it? A thought? A feeling? A trait? A grace,
that’s what I say. Can anyone prove me wrong? Look,
if no person can define it, why not let God?
What do you think we’ll discover, if we let God
explain? ‘Love is of God, and he who does not love
his brother has not seen God.’ He is its source! Look
at a brain--nerves and mush. The heart too, I regret
to say, is muscles and blood, moved only by grace.
There simply is no love-secreting gland within!
What then? It comes from the Lord, who places within
us part of His spirit! If you’ll simply let God
in, you’ll see what I mean. All becomes grace!
Your days and nights are filled completely with love
that was not there before! My only real regret
is that most people can’t see this--because they won’t look!
Some think love is something we find because we look
for it, a mirage-like self-delusion within.
This bunch are the truly deluded! Some regret
not loving, not believing, but none who let God
fill them ever turn back. Why? Nothing’s more real than His love!
No one shall succeed in explaining away grace!
Scientists’ unproven claims continue to grace
the textbooks, as though it were possible to look
at man and map everything. Well, you can’t see Love,
or blame Faith and Free Will on chemicals within.
Yet these things exist--and abound, if we let God
give them. From Him come all true things, with no regret.
If I were those skeptics, you know what I’d regret?
Calling man an animal, denying God’s grace;
Dwelling on the physical, failing to let God
have His place; Measuring truth by what we can look
at--missing our spirits and the good things within;
Thinking God isn’t proved by the presence of love!”
When he had gone, regret made me kneel and let God
have the glory for the love he has placed within.
We don’t look like much, but inside we have His grace.
