can you measure love?

[jasakwa]

How do you measure love?what are the parameters?

[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.

[grip_daddy]

There are problems that persist in humans as they endeavor to seek knowledge:

They want to explain everything. Not only aren't they satisfied by mere existence of some concepts, but they would also go ahead to itemize them. Why? Because to a man's mind reality is an object, a tangible entity, a quantized energy, and basically a measurable variable.

Ranging from time to energy, God to man, body so spirit, etc, man wouldn't have any other but a three dimensional perception of these!

Is time quantizable? Is motion a property of matter alone? What drives life? How does energy relate to existence of life? Is life some discrete form of matter interactions?

Or, why do you want to know if love is measurable and the parameters thereof? Maybe we can measure love but not in parametric terms?

We use terms like "I love you so so much", "I cherish you above life itself", "I'll do everything for you", "Your love is the greatest", etc.

For example, "your love is the greatest" is compared to what? Remember, even the God's love that is said to be the best standard against which all other love relationships ought to be measured, manifests differently in different people.

Do you want to measure your love for someone? Even if you did, you wouldn't get immunity against heart breaks.

[rayfisher]

the measure is that a man should give up his life for his friends and also that God gave his only begotten son
that is huge measure of love

[Shyloxx26]

As big as the bank account balance, as big as the jamaa's/ mama's wallet - and the number of liquid assets located inthe leafy suburbs ... anything else I forgot?

[ATLian]

Originally Posted by Ester

God is Love and His love is very different from human love. God’s love is unconditional, ......

Esther,

the question was How do you measure love?what are the parameters? Nothing you wrote has anything to do with the question!

[al-zalzalah]

Originally Posted by rayfisher

the measure is that a man should give up his life for his friends and also that God gave his only begotten son
that is huge measure of love

since i've been told i sound atheist , let me work harder to fit the role:

qtn- how exactly does sacrificing ur son for others show love? perhaps love for those others. but for ur own son? how would u, as an only son, feel if ur own father told u he's going to chinja u to save a bunch of ppl ud never met in your life.

and btw, i love my friends. but i wouldnt give my life up to save them. coz i know that if i did, id be abandoning my responsibility to my own family. love must be tempered by some sanity, bwana.

[Ester]

Originally Posted by ATLian

Esther,

the question was How do you measure love?what are the parameters? Nothing you wrote has anything to do with the question!

ATLian,

When it comes to measuring God's love, then it's like asking for the impossible (which is why i included the stanza of a well-liked hymn).

The song writer says that God's love is so profound that: if all the oceans were filled with ink; if all the skies could be written on; if everything that resembled a pen could be used to write; if everyone was a scribe by profession and we set to write about God's love; not only would all the oceans be drained dry, but all the skies above us would not be sufficient contain it!

I hope that gave you a taste of the infinity of God's love.

[barb]

[QUOTE=Ester;702727]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.


Ester this is besides the post but if God's love is so unconditional why would God watch his 'children' tortured in the flames of hell for eternity, what kind of a God is she??, or rather what kind of love is that???

[barb]

" I love you so much, Mommy,"
The child caught her mother's eye,
see how much i love you,
she held her arms out wide"

"Oh, sweetheart," said the mother,
i love you so much, too
Why, i cant even measure
all the love i have for you"

"Mommy, how do you measure love?
asked the child, wondering how
hmm...her mother stopped to ponder
a furrow formed upon her brow.

"Love cant be marked by rulers
or weighed upon a scale
it cant be measured in a cup
or with a spoon or pail."

"It cant be counted out like coins
nor put away for rainy days
the more, it seems, some people have
the more they give away"

"Love is valued differently,
and its very hard to measure
to some poor souls, its worthless,
while to others its a treasure"

"There are many kinds of love
though they're basically the same
all love starts within the heart
where its nourished and sustained"

"Love can make a life worthwhile,
though, its depth and breadth cannot be checked,
but when love's around, folks have found
the full extent of its effect."

"The twinkle in a person's eye,
the smile on a loved one's face
both are signs of love-at-work,
though no measurement has taken place"

"The attentive child sat and thought,
as she listened to those words
but she really didn't understand
everything she heard.

"So again she said "i love you"
with her baby arms outstretched,
'That's all the love i got" she said
somewhat troubled and perplexed.

'Oh honey, that's the way you do it,
that's how you really measure love,
then her mother opened wide her arms
and gave her unmeasured hugs."


basically love has no measurement or parameters, it is just its own reward.