“The soul needs love as urgently as the body needs air.” John O’Donohue

“When we love, and allow ourselves to be loved, we begin more and more to inhabit the kingdom of the eternal.”  John O’Donohue

Love inhabits many faces.

It begins with the face of our mother.

From there it may be the face of a sibling, a puppy, a teacher, a best friend, a lover, a spouse, an anam cara.

Love is the face of God reflected in the face of others.

“No one has seen God”, Jesus said, but in fact we have beheld God’s face when we look love full in the face of another.

One of the sweetest, purest, and best reflections of God’s love for me is seen in the faces of my four daughters.  I’m thinking about this because the second oldest, Kayleen, was married yesterday. 

As I looked at her beautiful bridal face, at times streaming with tears, I was mindful of how the face of love had changed in her, and my other daughters.  This was especially obvious when we did the father/daughter dance, which began with just the two of us, and then my other three daughters joined us to form a circle—a circle of love.  As I looked at each of their beautiful faces, I saw the progression of love in their lives.

First newborn love, as they passed from the darkness of the womb into the brightness of new light, making an entrance with a face that reflected the creative love of God.

Small child love, as their faces lit up with the wonders of every day adventure.

Little girl love, alive with the newness of each day, and the marvels of experiencing everything fully in each moment.

Teenage love, with the troubled waters of trying to navigate adolescence, and the changing scenery of the body, friends, and the world.

College-aged love, as they set their faces to make her way in the world, turning from looking solely at their family surrounding, and seeking instead the unknown and uncertain future that their lives held for them. 

Young woman love, with fierce independence, ideas, and ideology.

And now, married women love, with faces that lights up for a man who is not their father.  This is the most bittersweet of all, for me, as I relinquish the unique place of love that I held in their lives, and surrender to another man, whose face is new to me.  And in whose face I seek to see the love of God for my daughters.

There are more faces of love that they will experience and will be reflected in their lives—young mother’s love, middle-aged woman love, grandmother love, dying . . . and undying love. 

I wish to see them all.  I fear that I won’t.  And yet I know that they will continue to reflect the love of God in their faces—and their lives, whether they realize it or not.  All of them serving as unwitting icons of the face of the pure, holy, and eternal love of God.