[Ester]

God is Love and His love is very different from human love. God’s love is unconditional, and it’s not based on feelings or emotions. He doesn’t love us because we’re lovable or because we make Him feel good.

It seems the love that parents have for their children is as close to unconditional love as we can get without the help of God’s love. Still, God’s love transcends the human definition of love to a point that is hard for us to comprehend.

This reminds me of a song, one of my favorite church hymns, that tries to capture the depth and breadth of God’s love. One stanza says:

Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made
Were every stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints' and angels' song

Frederick Lehman wrote that hymn in 1917, writing two stanzas, the refrain, and the music. However, this last stanza was from a Jewish poem, Haddamut, (written by Rabbi Mayer in 1096) which was found on the wall of a patient's room in an insane asylum after he had been carried to his grave.