Love and marriage

From my point of view, one of the greatest love stories of all time has never been recognized as such even though it is filled with romance. In fact, when you first read the story, you would probably not recognize it as a love story at all. The reason we pass over this story so easily is that in order for us to recognize love, we must first have a great understanding in our own hearts of what love really is. Love is a peculiar attribute. It very seldom appears suddenly like a mushroom. Usually it grows slowly like a bud that unfolds and develops into a beautiful flower. In order to love something you have to get to know and understand it. For instance, the way we learn to love a sunset is to study sunsets carefully. We then learn to observe how one color blends into another so beautifully and harmoniously. Then we recognize how clouds add character to the scene and how the rays of the sun shining behind those clouds highlight them and give variety and beauty to the view. The more you watch sunsets, the more you appreciate and learn to love them. This is the way you young mothers learn to love a child. Being with that child so much and serving and watching over the child so carefully causes you to love it. You overlook its faults and appreciate its virtues. Service to another person or to a cause is an excellent way to develop love for that person or cause. But love doesn’t always have to grow so slowly. Love can blossom very suddenly. The particular love story I am talking about began suddenly and has been blossoming brightly for thousands of years. This love story is found in the Bible in the book of Genesis and is the story of Adam and Eve. When Adam was placed on the earth he was a perfect physical and mental specimen made in the likeness and image of God. But Adam had a basic weakness. He had no memory of where he came from or of what he had known before he was placed on the earth. Here on the earth he was required to learn everything from scratch. After Adam was created, the Lord God said: “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:18). God did not say “helpmate” or “helpmeet,” but used that good, solid, Anglo-Saxon word “meet” that means of the