Love that lies between
Do I love you?
Or do I love an idea of you?
If I love you only as you appear to me now, my love is superficial
and I have cheapened you
for there is more to you than appears
I know this
or so I think
If I do not love you as you appear to me now, my love is conditional
perhaps idolatrous
If I love you as you are, regardless of what appears, my love is presumptuous
for who can know what another truly is
and love it, without loving an idea?
If I love you only as you are, my love is without memory, and without hope
moreover it is possessive
neither seeking nor remembering your highest good
If I love an idea I have of you, my love is for what may be
or for what was, and is no more
or perhaps for what was, and is still, but is not seen
and are you then loved as you are?
What then of love?
Yet for all this I do love you
I love you for what I have seen
for what I see
and for what I have not seen
I love you for what you have become
for all you have lost
and for all you may yet be
For my love is the love of God
which remembers what you have been
sees what you have become
and hopes for what you shall be
again
and beyond again, for the end is better than the beginning
This is the love of Him
who knows the end from the beginning
the beginning from the end
and all that lies between
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