The First Consciousness of Love

The First Consciousness of Love

Now that I am old and well experienced in years lived, I find myself often thinking back over time about many things in this journey called life.  One of the things I often think about is how lucky I was to have two loving Christian parents. Simply by being born into such a blessed home, I was the unwitting, but fortunate beneficiary of a lot of love.  The seeming “natural presence of love” extended towards me upon my birth, caused me to consider the deeper aspects of “the nature of love,” and the origin of love itself. Why does love exist? Where does love emanate from? What causes love to ever develop? Is love a basic component of the human genetic code? Is it our nature to love? What exactly is this thing called love? The famous poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote of Love with these eloquent words: There is nothing holier in this life of ours than the first consciousness of love, the first fluttering of its silken wings. What a fundamental and powerfully penetrating line that is: “there is nothing holier than the first consciousness of Love.” Surely to goodness, there must be evidence that love is not only a wonderful emotion, but is indeed a most holy thing! In fact, this is exactly the instruction of the Bible.  I John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. As verse six indicates in this chapter, the human species came about because of God, and verse eight shared the fact that God is love, and proved it by the very manifestation of Love! Thus, from a Biblical point of view, it is explicitly affirmed that love is a fundamental part of the nature of God. Apart from God the Creator as the source of all consciousness of Love, there is truly no explanation for Natural Love. When we are born into this world, we come as tiny, fragile defenseless beings with no awareness of love. It is only by the expressed affection and personal attention that we receive by our parents that we gradually begin to become sensitized to even the slightest intimation of love. The first requirement of the consciousness of love is, of course that it has to be natural and eternally anchored in a presence much bigger and deeper than ourselves. Philosophers tell us that the sign of a mature consciousness of love is only attained when we learn to cease from soaking up all the love we can, and begin to share and give love to others as much as we can. Psychologists suggest that infants usually cannot have a conscious feeling of love until the age of 5-15 months. Even at such a early low level stage of consciousness, the essence of love primarily has only to do with the basics of self love. This condition begs the following two questions:  1- Is it a natural human instinct to want to be loved? 2- Is it a natural human instinct to give love? The answer to these two questions can only be yes; if there is a Holy God, who would by his own nature, have created and designed human beings not only in his own image, but also with the natural capacity for knowing Conscious Love! If humanistic evolution were true, then where does the consciousness of love come from? Would it simply evolve?  Of course that would be an absolutely preposterous proposition. Only a fool would believe that Love is a product of evolutionary progression. The First Consciousness of Love would of necessity require a very Holy beginning. And then for Love to be a good and wonderful thing, as it is, in our naturally Evil world; would be impossible.  John 17:24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. In this discourse of Jesus in the book of John, we find that in the Eternal realm of Heaven, God the Father and God the Son possessed and shared the First Consciousness of Love!  Furthermore, it was providential that from their Divine Consciousness of Love, that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit embarked upon their Creation project for the primary purpose of sharing their love with others, and imparting to them a plan of the progressive consciousness of Love! It is said that were it not for the Fall of Man, and Gods plan of loving redemption, mankind would never have known how much God loves us;  By the same token, we’re it not for the Fall of Man, and each mans free will and conscious choice of loving Gods plan of redemption; God might never have known if we truly and consciously loved him or not! Since love is of God, then His Love is the truth from which all of life originates. Ever since God breathed the breath of life into the first man, it is in this truth that we not only can find our purpose in life, but can experience within our Conscience, the reality of the Love of God. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring. Who then; being loved, is poor? ” Who then, consciously knowing the Love of God, can ever be hopeless?  There is an oldies song entitled, “A World Without Love,” sang by Peter and Gordon way back in 1964. It’s lyrics went like this: Please lock me away And don't allow the day Here inside where I hide With my loneliness I don't care what they say  I won't stay In a world without love Well, thanks to God; we do not live in a world without love. His love has transcended the evil nature of our world, and offers us the sublime holiness of his love.   Still, Why is it that Love, the thing that is most needed in our world, so hard to find today? It seems that everyone is searching for love, but just cannot find it. Even the Natural Love of mother’s for their newborn child is becoming more and more non-existent. And beyond that the Natural Affection between male and female is being destroyed by popular culture.  If it can be dogmatically asserted that God is Love and Love is Of God; then it can also be firmly established that Satan is Hate, and the abatement of Natural Affection, and the dissolution of the First Consciousness of Love is a strategy of Satan. The First Consciousness of Love has always existed, because God is conscious, God is Love, Love is Of God and God is eternal.  There is another oldies song I like a lot, and it reminds me of another point regarding the First Consciousness of Love. It was popular way back in 1958 and was entitled: “For your love, I would do anything!” I like that line because it perfectly expresses the fact that God has done absolutely everything to impart his love unto our conscience!  In fact, everything that God has done to win our love, to share his love, is due to the fact the very First Consciousness of Love emanated from him! Truly, Longfellow was right, “there is nothing in this world that is Holier than the First Consciousness of Love!  by: Darrell G. Young January 2021 Focus on the Bible