By Bradley Robertson
Have you seen the movie Love Actually?
It is one of my Holiday favorites, and if you haven’t seen it, I highly encourage you to watch it soon. (fyi: it has a few scenes not meant for children … I’d hate to disturb your entire family or fruit awkward conversations over Christmas…) The movie was produced in 2003 with Hugh Grant cast as the lead role.
The beginning of the movie takes place in an airport somewhere in England. The film shows many different people hugging in the airport soon before Christmas. Families and friends smiling and laughing, glad to be together once again. And Hugh Grant speaks up as commentator saying this (in his very British voice) …
“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals at Heathrow Airport. General opinion is starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. Seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or news worthy, but it’s always there. Fathers and sons. Mothers and daughters. Husbands and wives. Boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the plains hit the twin towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from people on board were messages of hate or revenge. They were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is, all around…”
The movie goes on and on with this theme, weaving in and out of stories about people and families maneuvering and working through their own state of love during Christmas. The entire movie is hilarious and has some incredible truths, shining some good British light and love on all of us.
That one big truth is just that, LOVE really is everywhere. We just have to put on our holy goggles to be sure we don’t miss it.
We have been through a lot this year dear readers. We have seen great loss, we have felt loneliness, experienced isolation and watched death and hatred splashed on our TV’s and among families. Some of us are still living in hard and sad times, while others are seeing the light creep back in.
But I believe, the light never left us. It’s been there all along. The comfort and affection of the human spirit has been here the whole time, in the presence of Love.
Love is like oxygen. It never leaves us. It’s a constant glimmer of hope in a world that knows suffering. Love is everywhere. It’s spilling over actually and pouring out of our laps. If the news was focused on love, they could never fill up every minute of every day with all the love seen around the world.
It’s our perspective that gets skewed. Or perhaps it is our attitude.
Are we open to life with a wink and a smile? Open to love?
Or are we waiting with arms crossed, on guard for something we can’t even put our finger on?
Do you believe in Love?
If so, then I promise it is there. It’s present and waiting on us to receive it. It’s like magic, love creates something grand out of nothing except what we believe to be true in our hearts.
I believe love is everywhere and so love is what I will see. Sadness, hurt, loss, it too will always be present, but it is the pure image of love that carries us in life.
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life.” John 3:16