Tonight is the fourth night of Hanukkah. We have lit the three candles, Faith, Freedom and Courage. Now these three become brighter and stronger as we light the fourth, “Love.”
We cannot have faith unless we love it. We cannot believe in freedom unless we love it. We cannot be brave in heart unless we love something dearly enough to fight for it.
Love is a beautiful word. It is soft and warm to the ear. Love is an all-inclusive word. We love God and we love our nation. We love our children and our parents. We love our mates. We love friends and relatives. We love an ice cream soda and a football game. We love a holiday or a rainy day. We love to feel the warmth of the sun or we love a walk through a pine forest. We love hotdogs or a poem. We love a painting or a frolic in the snow…all kinds of love for so many things.
We love our history and our religion. We love the feeling of health in our bodies and the cleanness of conscience. We love the purity of those things we think toward our fellow man, and we love to see someone we adore. We love the sight of a flag flying in the breeze. We love the colors of flowers blossoming in a Spring morning. We love the distant clip-clop of a horse’s hooves; the sound of car tires driving through a pool of water.
All these things that we love enrich our lives and make us people of substance and stature. The unhappy people are those who never love. We cannot experience and be blessed by love if we are selfish and mean and bitter. We cannot enjoy love if we try to hurt others, rather than help them. God has given us the miracle of life, and we can enjoy it better if we love God for what He has given us and love the life that He has granted to us.
See how bright the lights burn, with Love shining strongly next to them.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. (Leviticus 19:18)