Love is the most powerful force in the universe. Love blesses both giver and receiver and resounds in hearts forever. It’s true that we’re all born with differing interests and capacities, strengths and weaknesses. But one thing we all need is to receive and give love. We need it in order to grow into the kind of people we’re capable of becoming—more loving, more courageous, more loyal. All virtues have their root in love.
A father of modest means who has now passed on left little of the world’s possessions behind, but he left a legacy of love that his family still cherishes. A mother who often feels inadequate, worrying that there’s so much she cannot do well, knows she can nurture with love—which is, after all, the most important gift she can give. Children remember warmly and clearly those loving moments long after they leave the home. Truly, we never forget love.
This old world, which has seen much of sorrow and suffering, much of tribulation and difficulty, needs love. It’s so simple, so essential—and although it’s common sense, it’s often not common practice. We can each do our part by filling our little corner of the world with love. We can join in the song:
“In the evening of my life I shall look to the sunset,
At the moment in my life when the night is due.
And the question I shall ask only I can answer:
Was I strong and brave and true, . . .
Did I fill the world with love my whole life through?”1
Program #4001
1 Leslie Bricusse, “Fill the World with Love.”